Prelude to Episode 2

(or Jordan and Stephie step out)"

Your special delivery service business has been up and running for about a week, and business has been slow. One of you roll 3d6 and times the result by 10. That's the number of credits you've earned so far to split between you both. You've both just been out on routine deliveries and return home at roughly the same time. You have a message waiting for you. It's from an acquaintance, Billy Spres. He's a small time hustler that you've meet a couple of times in the stuffer shack downstairs at your apartment building and once at the Velvet Room, a club over in the Kansas City Towers. He always seemed out to hustle someone, although you never really had any run-ins with him. He always seemed to be sizing you up to see what good you might be able to do him down the road. The number is apparently a mobile.

What do you do?

I think we should call him back and set up a meeting with him at the Velvet Room tomorrow to discuss what he might want.

CALLING BILLY SPRES BACK:

You call the number he left on your computer and its answered almost immediately. You have a hard time hearing him though because there's a lot of noise in the background. It sounds like music and conversation. Stephanie yells into the comp-phone (computer phone), "mute your receiver you idiot", she never was very fond of Billy, since he tried to put the moves on her a month or so back. You hear a slight click and the background noise subsides to a slight hiss. Billy says, "Drek sorry. Listen chummers, I think I got something for you guys. It's a little off your line, but I know about your M-Corp gig, and this is the same drek. My clients hot to go and I've got 100 creds riding on this. Can you buzz down to the V-room (the Velvet Room, a local jazz club located in the Kansas City towers which is just across the intersection of 11th & Walnut from your building). Gotta know if you're dialing in, cause if you ain't gotta find some other talent, this one won't wait.

WHAT DO YOU DO?

Mike,
I have spoken with Craig and we want to set the time to meet Mr. Spres at 2:30 at the place indicated. I will stay outside as backup. And Jordan will enter we will use our unique bond to keep in touch during the meeting. Just in case there is trouble. While I am outside I will also keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. And relay that back to Jordan.

Steve

HEADING TO THE VELVET ROOM

(DM Note: Steve assumed that this encounter was occurring in the middle of the day. However I assumed it was in the evening. With Steve' agreement the encounter will occur in the evening. It is currently about 5:30 PM)

Stephanie to Billy, "Tell you what. Jordan will meet you at 7:30 at the V-Room. "Drek girl, I said I've got a live one" Billy responds. "She's leaking (crying) all over and wants to jack in (talk to) with someone now. If it'll compile for you any better, her values are $100 creds a day, a five min. Plus expenses! You got another gig like that keeping you home? Don't be null girl, get over here now, before she walks on us both."

Craig (Jordan),

We should go ahead and go now. I'll wait outside.
You will have a better chance of not scaring her off.

Steve (Stephanie)

I concur with Steve's last e-mail. Let's have a meeting.

HEADING TO THE VELVET ROOM

You head downstairs and across the street to the Velvet Room, or the V-Room as it's known around the neighborhood. As you hit the street you see it's alive with activity. SkyCars roam here at street level (the only time drivers actually get to control the vehicle when it's in the city), there are vendors doing business out of little hover kiosks (Cart like, these kiosks usually round, are about 2 or 3 foot across and 4 foot tall, they have a small grav plate attached to the bottom so they float above the sidewalk. This makes them much easier to push around than a wheeled cart.), selling everything from hotdogs (yes they're still around) to trinkets like cheap jewelry and kids toys. At this time of night the first of the street performers have come out. The streets are busy with the last few stragglers heading to the subway to make their way home from work, and others getting an early start on the evening's revelry.

The V-Room is less than a block away from your building (The Argyle Building). It is located on the first floor of the Kansas City Towers, an upper class residential building. As you approach the building you notice nothing out of the ordinary. Through the large plate glass windows you can see a sparse crowd gathered inside the club. The band won't be on for several hours yet, but you can hear jazz through the clubs outdoor speakers, designed to lure in music aficionados no doubt. Billy can be seen sitting at a table close to the window with lovely women. She looks to be in her late 20's but with the medical treatments available it's hard to tell age anymore. With a nod to his sister and a quick test of his telepathic link, Jason heads into the club.

In the club Jason approaches the table that Billy and the women are sitting at. He can see that the women has red puffy eyes and is frowning. Billy looks up at Jason and a look of relief crosses his face. He says, "Hoy, chummer am I glad to see you. This beautiful young lady is Mrs. Vladimir Kercinkov, Betty to her friends." After polite introductions and a minimum of chitchat, you get down to business. Betty begins, "I think my husband is fooling around on me. I could just kill the bastard. I mean look at me! What man in his right mind would fool around on me! (She is quite attractive, and curved in all the right places.) I mean I had all this work done and I'm just awesome in bed. I want you to follow my husband, get pictures of him with his little hussy. I'll pay you 100 credits a day plus expenses." She slides a cred stick across the table to you. "There's 500 here as a retainer. Won't you take the job for me?"

HOW DO YOU RESPOND?

Not so fast baby. Lets all take a minute to catch our breath. A few questions before we make a deal.
Who exactly is your husband? (What does he do)?
What makes you think he's cheating on you?
Why hire us, there are professionals that do this kind of work?
Do you know anything about where they meet or who his partner is?

THE LADY SPILLS HER GUTS

Betty taking on a pouting look says, "Well my husband is Vladimir Kercinkov of course!" She juts out her lower lip and leans over the table ( Her low cut dress gives you quite a good view of some of her best assets) and says in a conspiratorial whisper, "My husbands in the import export business. I know he's cheating because he comes home and his clothes smell of cheap perfume and his tool smells of her two. Then he wants to ram it to me. Can you believe the bastard!" her voice rises as she becomes angry.

Answering your next question; "I thought you guys were professionals? This is the type of stuff you did in the army isn't it? That's what Billy told me. I figured you guys wouldn't have any connections to my husband, so maybe you wouldn't have any axes to grind."

And finally answering your last questions; "I don't have any idea who the prick is donking, that's what I want to hire you for. Are you going to take the job or not!" she says giving Billy a glance that could curdle milk.

MEANWHILE OUTSIDE

Outside Stephanie is pretty much able to keep an eye on the goings on inside the V-Room, while it is still light out at this time of year (it's May 20, 2501), the steel and concrete canyons created by all the tall buildings down here make the street lighting more like twilight once the sun descends below the line of the buildings.

Stephanie is starting to get a little distracted as a group of three young men who are starting to set up what looks like some electronic equipment on the street about 25' from you. They have a hover cart (another device with a grav-plate attached to the bottom), with various equipment stacked on it. After a few minutes you can tell they're a group of street musicians and they're setting up for a show. There are a couple of guitarists (they're plugging into amps no bigger than a suitcase, but you know from experience that these little amps pack a powerful punch) and one guy with a drum machine. A small crowd is starting to gather. Down by the intersection across from your building, you see several gang members sporting the colors of the Hell Hounds dragging out a makeshift barricade. Your obviously about to be in the middle of a concert.

First dm question----- any chance I have heard of Vladimir Kercinkov in the neighborhood?

Second ------- send Billy off for drinks tell him to walk slow.

third ------------ after Billy is gone / ask Betty if she has considered what she's going to do with the pictures and the information after she gets it.

THE LADY BATS HER EYES

DM Answer: Yes there's a chance you would have heard of Vladimir Kercindov, but unfortunately you have not. You've only been back on Terra-Sol about a month.

Jordan leans over to Billy and says, "Hey chummer, I think the lady needs a fresh drink". Swiping his cred card through the slot on the table as he punches in the order, he says to Billy, "Why don't you pick it up for her…and walk drag it. Billy shoots Jordan a foul glance and says, "Chummer yourself blood. You try and cut me I can make the job null man. Don't pull any M-Corp shit on me".

Jordan watches for a second as Billy makes his way towards the bar. Turning to Betty he says, "What's the gig with the pictures".

Betty bats her eyelashes, arching her back she runs her hands up her sides, over her chest, and leans forward; "Why to set my soul free of course, although that isn't to say you couldn't help as well". She slides over to the chair next to you and continues, "I think I'm just going to die if my luck doesn't change soon". Her hand now slowly makes its way up your thigh and into your pocket, where you get the distinct "feeling" she is checking your qualifications for the job.

WELCOME TO STREETJAM

Outside your three friends are all tuned up and start into their first tune (the leader singer is kind of cute in a hippie-boy way, Stephanie thinks). There must be a crowd of 500 to 1,000 people gathered here now. They just seemed to come out of the woodwork. It's making it hard to see into the V-Room. You see a couple of Metro blueboys (police) on horseback down at the far end of the street by the barricade. Looking up you see a couple of Arasaka boys (private police) on skycycles, hovering about 20 stories up.

Jordan blushing, you know Betty a 500 chip just won't fund this party. The marines wanted to keep all their stuff, so we will need to go shopping. How about 200 credits a day plus expenses. 2000 credits as a retainer. You look like a woman who knows you get what you pay for.

I will need detailed intel from you if you accept. Where, when, how, everything you can think of about your husband. His schedule, places he likes to go, is he armed, does he have bodyguards. I wish we had somewhere else to talk about this, this place is getting to crowded for my likes.

About Billy, can you pay him off and then drop him.

Jordan,

I'm coming in maybe I can try to keep Billy out of the way for a while.

DM:
I walk in and come to the table, timing it about the same time Billy gets to the table with the lady's drink. Looking at Jordan I say you mind introducing me to your friend. After the Introductions are over I will ask Billie to go to the Bar with me for drinks that way Jordan and the woman can keep the bargaining going. Telling Billie he can still be in on what's happened so far.

Stephanie

LET'S MAKE A DEAL

"I like a man who's all business"; Betty says reaching deeper into your pocket and getting a firm grip on your nether regions she says "How about 1500 and 150 a day. Just say yes so we can get out of here and go back to your place. I can tell you everything you want to know and more!"

I' M LATE, I'M LATE, FOR A VERY IMPORTANT DATE; OR STEPHAINE ENTERS THE ROOM

As you enter the V-Room Billy catches sight of you and makes a beeline over to you. "I don't know what your brothers slag is but I'm not going to get nulled out of this gig."

Yes, just pay Billy first - he could cause us some unnecessary trouble if he feels cheated. And I'll take my 1500 now please.

CONCLUDING THE DEAL

Betty takes another cred stick (A cred stick by the way is about the size of a fountain pen. It has electronic encryption in it and can accept transfers from any auto teller and transfer funds to any credit reader, which are usually just holographic lasers. The readers can simply read the amount of money the cred stick holder allocates as payment. The withdrawal of money from a cred stick is entirely controlled by the cred stick holder. Cred sticks can also accept transfers from other cred sticks. Heck even the average bum or panhandler on the street has his own cred stick to accept handouts from their victims. The cred stick is the 25th century answer to cash.) from her purse and makes a transfer to it. As she passes Billy, she tosses it to him. "Thanks for your help, I won't be needing anything else. Please don't call."

She turns to Jordan and says "Lets stop by the auto teller on the way to your place, I'll get you the rest of your 1,500".

As Betty and Jordan leave the V-Room, Billy turns to Stephanie and says, "What a bitch! Well at least I got my cut". Putting his arm around Stephanie he says, "you wouldn't want to help me spend this would you?"

Note to DM:
Can I tell how much Billy has had to drink?

Stephanie: Sure maybe dinner and drinks but if you're expecting anything else
you'll need alot more than she gave you.

Note to Jordan:
Linking with Jordan

Get the money first. Play later p.s. their not real and remember who her
husband is or might be.

DM RESPONSE TO ATTEMPTED USE OF TELEPATHY
Did Stephanie make her role for Telepathy? You can't make contact without this roll remember, and it costs points. See my earlier note to you describing where to find this info in the player's handbook.

Missed the roll the roll was a 19-8=11 my personality is a 9.
Sorry I forgot.

lead betty into the tunnels that run between buildings. (if that would be acceptable behavior). Suggest that not being seen together would be wise.

dm ????? Is there any way to accept payment in a non-traceable way?

JORDON

See my previous discussion on cred stick's for an idea of what passes for cash in the 25th century.

"Let's go to your place, you live by yourself don't you." Note: She stopped by an auto teller and got the rest of the funds you requested.
STEPFANIE

Billy, doesn't appear to be intoxicated yet, but then he could have taken an Alco-NulÒ (a pill which passes alcohol through your system, without it affecting you)

Billy takes you over to Club Apocalypse which is quite a hard place to get into. He apparently knows one of the bouncers, and you get right in. He buys you drinks and finger food, and tries to put the moves on you. How far does he get?

Were going to have drinks, discuss the weather, what he did in the service thank him for the drinks and dismiss my self thanking him for the business also . If he gets upset I will try to sooth him with a little flattery and tell him I just don't have time. (at the moment for anything else)let him read anything into that he wants. If he wants anything else I would expect alot more than just getting one job. But letting him know that just about anything is possible. Keep in touch DM Note: Not in his lifetime


"THANKS FOR THE CASH I'LL START WORKING ON YOUR PROBLEM FIRST THING IN THE MORNING. LET ME JUST DEPOSIT THIS." (IF I HAVE A ACCOUNT NEAR HERE????)

"MY PLACE IS A COUPLE OF BLOCKS FROM HERE, WE CAN GO THERE AND DISCUSS THAT INFO THAT I REQUESTED. ITS PROBABLY NOT AS NICE AS YOU ARE USE TO, BUT ITS A SECURE LOCATION."


INFORMATION AND ENTERTAINMENT

You manage to get your money deposited, which is easy to do with your cred stick. You could have also left the money in the cred stick and it would have been relatively secure as long as you didn't lose it.

When you get back to your place, Betty doesn't waste much time, but she's full of information when her mouth isn't full. Between little sighs she tells you that her husband runs an import export business. He has an office by the Plaza. It's pretty small, but he seems to bring in a lot of money. She says she doesn't always like his business associates, they seem a little unsavory and way too polite. She says he usually carries a gun for protection and she doesn't know if there body guards but he usually has several of his "associates" with him most of the time. He doesn't have a set schedule, he comes and goes at all hours but his business office keeps regular hours, 9 to 4.

When you're finished you try and think back to when you've ever had better. Can't do it, Betty is good. Maybe too good?

A Little Code


You are on the grid playing a gridgame with Chris, VoidMonsters III as a matter of fact, and that slacker bastard is kicking your ass again. Just as his Void Dragon rips a gaping whole in your ships crew compartment you see the mail slot open on your icon and a note slip through. Since you have a second while waiting for Chris to slot the next scenario you open the mail.

It's a note from a friend of yours, "Sneaky" Pete Perkovich. He's a friend of yours from the 14th. He got his nickname as the point man for an Insertion Team. He's a non-stop talker, usually the kind of guy you don't like, and you didn't like Sneaky at first either, but he has a way of wearing you down. He could scmooze the pants off anyone, just ask any of a number of women. You now count him as one of your best friends from your military days almost as good a friend as your teammates.

The note reads:

"Jad (a nickname he calls you), man you've got to get down here stat. I think I've got a live one for you. Could mean some jammin cred man! I'm at the Apocalypse. Get down here right away man, this place is drive. You should see this dude in the back both, he's like hyper-jacking… Shit dude! Just get down here -LIKE NOW MAN.

Sneaky

WHAT DO YOU DO?

Jack a quick note to Chris, "Gotta jackout, dude, just have to void your ass some other time. Tomorrow same time, same game?" Send and jackout. Take half a minute to make sure I look decent, then pop down to the Apocalypse on the bounce (lookin' around, natch, never know who might be waiting for you to pop outside) and get in to see Pete. Of course, if this is just another try to scam me out of a beer...

"All right, Pete, what's so spamming hot?"

Off to the Apocalypse:

As you pop out of your Building (the Argyle building) you see the street is alive with activity. Skycars move about the streets. When they're on the ground that's the only time the drivers actually have control so you need to be careful. The mass of humanity that makes up this huge city seems to stream by you in microcosm. People hurrying to get somewhere, vendors selling food and trinkets from little hover kiosks, bag people panhandling for spare creds, people hurrying down into the train station. You're only going a couple of blocks to the Teese Plaza building. Club Apocalypse is a velvet rope club, and a long line of people stand inside the rope waiting to walk down the stairs to the basement entrance to the club. As you approach the line you see a collection of people dressed in outlandish styles and garish colors, but for the most part these are the beautiful people. Most of them probably surgically enhanced!

As you settle in at the end of the line wondering if you're underdressed (after only seconds of consideration you decide you are) one of the bouncers approaches you. You've heard these guys are some of the surliest dudes in the neighborhood. This one however walks up to you (dressed stylishly all in black leather. Some things seem to never change) and says, "Tag with me chummer. Your bud slacked you in". You follow him and he leads you down the stairs to the basement entrance to the famous Club Apocalypse. After you enter the door you head down another flight of stairs until you come to a large room. A tuxedoed man stands at the entrance and eyes you suspiciously. The room is lousy with smoke (Everyone smokes. With gene-spas and anti-aging therapies available there aren't really any health risks anymore and the Orion's have always been a bit rebellious.) and the house band Charnel Dreams blares at a level just under what it would take to rupture your eardrums. After a second your eyes adjust to the dim light and you make out Sneaky Pete at the far end of the bar. He has his back to you and he and several other guys seem to be intently staring into a booth on the far wall. Looking around you see the dance floor is packed, and if you didn't know better you'd swear several of the guys in here would have to be Good Fellas. As you get close to Pete he looks back and sees you, smiling he says, "Your quick today dude". Then bobbing his head towards the both he says, "Scan that blood". Looking towards the booth you see a middle-aged man sitting and an absolutely gorgeous young thing astride him obviously doing the horizontal boop, vertically. They seem totally unaffected by the small audience they have attracted.

Pete says, "Dude our friend here would like to download with you. After the deed of course".

What do you do?

Pretty much like I told you Friday night...maybe look at my surroundings a little from where I stand, and wait for the dance to end.

WILL THE SHOW EVER END?

Pete turns to you and smiles. "Quite a show huh! Dude can you download me a tube (cigarette), I can't believe this place. Let me buy you a drink man." He motions to the bartender and orders a shot of Dewers Gold, and says "the same blood?" Tearing your eyes away from the show you see this place is absolutely packed with some of the most beautiful people you've ever seen. All dressed in clothes that cost more than your pension for a month. The house band, Charnel Dreams is on stage and they're ripping the walls down. Some of the best speed metal you've heard in a long time. "And this is only the first set man, you should see these guys after they get warmed up!" Pete says.

After a couple of minutes the stars of the show finish their scene and the gentleman and lady both excuse themselves to visit the washroom presumably. A couple of gentlemen, who seem frightening despite their 1,000-cred suits, motion you over to the both. Pete slides in and motions you to follow. He leans over to you and says; "Don't go null values on me blood. This dudes high cred and he can push some serious gigs our way. I'll do the talking, you just answer his tech queries."

After a couple of minutes the male lead of our recent show slides into the booth next to you. One of his "associates" slides in next to Pete. "My name is Vladimir Kercinkov", the big guy says, pausing for dramatic effect, or to let it sink in who he is (unfortunately you've never heard of him). "I'm in need of a rad grid-jock. Sneaky here says you can jack code with the AI's. If you're half that good then I've got a feeling you'll be making a lot of creds off me. What I need is some entry code jacked. I got a business partner going low values and I need to see his code." He turns a micro disk over in his fingers before handing it to you. "Here's the specs we need to beat. I need the code in two weeks. If I have it, it's 1k creds to you. Here's a down payment"; he says handing you a cred stick showing 250 on the display.

HOW DO YOU RESPOND?

I fish a pack out of my pocket, handing Pete one of my favorite herbal blends which I know he positively hates, so why he always asks for one I don't know. But I don't trust what they put in the brands; got a good friend rolls these for me for low creds. I order a synth-ale, and when Pete gives me an odd look I laugh and shrug. "Habits, blood. Got my eye on some drive software, cutting corners where I can. You know they don't pay flop for pension."

I sit and listen to the band, watching the show with measured indifference. After all, I can see better on the grid anytime I want, and I have infinite camera angles. But it isn't bad. And I'm sure she'd be good, but...ah, hell, I'm thinkin' about Carmin again. I shake my head, and continue looking around at the people, mentally tagging them against my file of suspected "they". (Not hard to do, between my photo-memory and the CPU in my skull.)

When Mr. Slick comes back from his break, I give him a grade-2 mostly-harmless smile and listen to the opening code. Thinking quickly, I come up with a list of questions for him, filing it away in a special file upstairs coded KERCINKOV. I don't ask any of these unless Pete leaves one of them out, though; I'll be nice and not step on his toes unless I have to, since Pete's usually pretty sharp on the creds.

1. Is this a pure-grid job, or does it require physical?
2. Who's going to try to prevent me from getting this?
3. What resources do they have?
4. How do I contact for delivery and payment?
5. How will my contact prove him or herself?
6. Any bonuses for quick delivery?

If Vlad-boy objects to any of this, I ask him with a grade-3 no-skin-off-my-nose grin whether he wants somebody who can think fast enough not to tip off the wrong person, or if any dumb-flop key-typing 2D gridder-chimp will do for getting his important information. Security is another of my specialties, and I take it seriously. (Heck yeah, I want the job, but not badly enough to be insulted for it.) I don't care why he wants this stuff; I just don't want to get burned retrieving it.

Other than that, all is fine; I'll run a quick grid-search on this guy once I get home, assuming no complications in the discussion arise. And I'll check his disk and take care of the cred-stik.

DOWNLOADING THE GIG

Pete takes one look at your tube and throws it back at you. "You know that shit will kill you Jad. I'm telling you it'll go terminal on you and the med-scans won't pick it up."

After Kercinkov returns, Pete begins the discussion. "How's the gig set up? My boy Jad, isn't drive with physical, but we've got contacts and it can be arranged.

"No sneaky, you've got it wrong. I'm not needing any piloting done; I just need your friend to jack the code. No offense but you boys aren't well known to me, I've got my own jock to take on the ice, I just don't want him fried. I'll tell you what though. I've got an extra 500 cred's if you can bring me the code in under 10 days. What do you say? We got a deal?

I give Pete a nod; I'm drive with the job. After that point, I'll make sure I'm clear on the specs, exchange a minimum of pleasantries, and jack my butt home to start working on it...for 500 creds, I'm putting games on hold for a while.

HI HO, HI HO, IT'S OFF TO WORK WE GO

Here's how this is going to work. You've got a lot of complex code to deal with (You're coding an intrusion program to go against some pretty sophisticated ice if you're to believe the specs, which seem vaguely familiar.) and some nasty opp/specs to go against.

You will need to achieve 30 programming skill successes to complete this job. I'm assuming you're going to be going at this full bore, which means you'll be working 12 hour days, which is quite unusual in a society in which the standard work day is only 6 hours and the standard work week, 30 hours. After the third day, you will need to make a Wil check every day to keep working the long days. If you fail you will only get in 6 hours that day.

You will get to roll against your programming skill for every three hours worked. For an ordinary success, you will receive credit for one skill success. For a good success, you will receive credit for two skill successes. For an awesome success, you will receive credit for three skill successes. For a failure you will not receive any credit. A critical failure will cause you to subtract one of your skill successes, as you obviously went down a blind coding alley so to speak, and will need to backtrack.

Your rolls will be unmodified unless you can come up with rules or do something you think deserves a modifier. Let me know what these are and I'll make a ruling. Good luck.

[Doesn't sound like it'll be too bad. My programming skill is 16/8/4, backed by a hacking skill of 16/8/4, so I ought to know what I'm doing. <g> I'll list the rolls, in case you decide that the hacking skill merits a modifier. Personally, if I were doing this myself I'd probably require 15 successes each on programming and hacking, since the job requires expertise in both.]

(roll#: roll (successes) total successes)

Day 1:
1: 8 (+2) 2
2: 3 (+3) 5
3: 15 (+1) 6
4: 9 (+1) 7 (After the first day, I may not need to work too hard to get this done...feelin' good...)

Day 2:
1: 2 (+3) 10
2: 11 (+1) 11
3: 11 (+1) 12
4: 20 (-1) 11 (Null it! This guy sure writes strange specs!)

Day 3:
1: 14 (+1) 12
2: 18 (0) 12
3: 7 (+2) 14 (About time!)
4: 9 (+1) 15 (Well, not as good a day as I'd hoped, but still doing fine...)

Day 4:
1: 1 (+3) 18 (Yeah! Finally figured out how to do that error trapping subroutine!)
2: 16 (+1) 19
Will check: 3 (Let's try to get this sucker DONE.)
3: 18 (0) 19 (No, Pete, I'm NOT done yet, leave me ALONE.)
4: 6 (+2) 21 (Drive!)

Day 5:
1: 14 (+1) 22
2: 3 (+3) 25
Will check: 17 (Time for some games...this thing's a breeze.)

Day 6:
1: 2 (+3) 28 (Oh, yeah...coming together now.)
2: 12 (+1) 29 (Almost. Maybe I'll add a little extra on this sucker, get a rep for going the extra klick.)
Will check: 11 (Tomorrow, that is...)
That evening: Contact Pete, tell him I expect to have the code ready for delivery in three days; make arrangements for an evening meeting. Spend a little time trying to figure out why this looks so familiar.

Day 7:
1: 10 (+1) 30 (There, got the main part done...now for a few extra bells and whistles.)
2: 15 (+1) 31 (And a backup for myself...got to figure out why this seems so familiar.)
Will check: 7 (He's gonna like this...)
3: 1 (+3) 34 (Oh, yeah...whatever hacker uses this will be glad to see this feature.)
4: 15 (+1) 35 (And this one...)

Day 8:
1: 8 (+2) 37 (Link this puppy up right, maybe I can get it to record itspath...)
2: 4 (+3) 40 (YEAH. Now this automorph should come in handy when the ICE gets slick.)
Will check: Yeah, as if. Not even gonna try. :) But what I =will= do is spend some time at the computer shop.

Day 9:
1: 7 (+2) 42 (This thing's almost good enough to sell...well, maybe not yet.)

2: 6 (+2) 44 (Compile and copy. Customer gets two copies, I keep two in the best hiding places I can find. This little masterpiece should come in handy later.)

Afternoon: spend some time looking things over...particularly in comparing these specs to what I ran into back when I got my brain zapped. Something's definitely spooky here. Does it have something to do with...THEM?

Evening: Go to meet with Kercinkov wherever Pete's told me we're meeting. Gonna get me some creds!

SIGNED SEALED AND DELIVERED

In answer to a couple of your questions: You figure out the code specs look so familiar because they're almost identical to some VoidCorp ICE which you're very familiar with, having spent the better part of the last 6 years going up against it.

As far as that little incident with the ICE that got you when you tried to break in and get the specs on your "experimental" neural processor. You figure have a slight memory recall here (it's all been very hazy since the incident and you don't remember much about it). The ICE had some superficial resemblance to VoidCorp ICE carrier code, but the subroutines had no relation to anything you'd ever experienced before.

As far as delivering your work. You are told to meet Kercinkov at the Pendergast Tea Room at 10 PM. You and Pete arrive, and are escorted to a nice table, and told to go ahead and order, it's on the house. About halfway through Kercinkov comes out of a private dining area, a beautiful blonde women on his arm. He stops by your table, asks you if you have the disk, collects it from you and hands you a credstick with the balance of your payment plus your bonus. He says: "Hang lose, I think I'm going to have another job for you within the week.

DM Note: If there's any other exploring you want to do around the neighborhood, let me know.

What's Pete's cut of the action?
I'll thank Kercinkov, and tell him I'm looking forward to any feedback he (or his pilot) has on my work. And to any future jobs.
I'll certainly drop by the computer shop, see what's new. Other than that, not much...

OLD BUDDY OLD PAL
A typical finders fee would be 10% of the job in question. Old Pete so far hasn't mentioned it.

That's because Old Pete knows I'm a good pal, and I'll pay him as soon as the customers are gone. And then I'll offer to take him out somewhere tomorrow for dinner (not too expensive...say 50cr for the two of us, including tips and such...I don't know prices too well yet).

GM: Michael Cross (e-mail)