| From: | Mike Broadwater <neon@******.BACKBONE.OLEMISS.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | The Hunted, pt. 4 |
| Date: | Wed, 16 Oct 1996 23:45:32 -0500 |
>>>>>[Hi Lilith. I guess I've got some explaining to do, huh? Well, here
it goes.
Lynch told me that I should send updates to you while I was on my own (which
makes me feel like I'm ten, by the way). Not a problem, but I suppose you
wanted them more than two weeks apart. Oh well, it's field work, what can I
say? Actually, this would've been to you two days ago, but I don't know how
good the encryption is, and I didn't want anyone to find where I was, when I
was there. So what I did was set up a delay of four days. Anyone who
traces this send is going to be too late.
But for the information. Here it is in a day by day breakdown. It starts
on the fourth, a few hours before I dropped Jason off for his flight. What
isn't captured on the body cam and mike you gave me I filled in with my
personal notes. I also voice overed some of the video.
+++++Begin video 041057.20:15:90.MDT
The view from the camera shows the inside of a smoke filled bar. The hands
of the person the camera is attached to, obviously Blade, show parts of him
on the sides of the view, but the picture is centered on a doorway to the
right of the actual bar that stretches the length of the room. A man walks
out. He look fairly normal, except for a long mohawk. He walks over to
where Blade is sitting and mumbles a few words, which are too low to be
picked up by the microphone.
Blade turns slightly to where another man, Lynch, is sitting. "This
shouldn't take too long." Lynch just nods before turning his attention back
to the room.
Blade stands and follows the man with the mohawk across the bar, through the
door, and up a long flight of stairs. At the top, the man opens a door and
gestures for Blade to walk through. Blade does, and the door closes behind
him without the other man entering.
The room upstairs is a cut above what was below. Not a big cut, but it's
obvious that this is where the true business of the place is done. Sitting
behind a desk is a scrawny looking fellow. His greasy black hair is tied
back, but it does nothing to neaten up his appearance. Nor does the poorly
cut raw silk suit that he's wearing. Behind and to the left stands another
man. From his stance, he's either a bodyguard, an advisor, or both.
The man at the desk speaks with a voice heavly accented from the streets.
"Good evening Mr. Blade. I've heard many good things about you. What may
my business do for you tonight?"
Blade sits down in a chair in front of the desk, and leans back. "Lets cut
the drek, shall we? There's only one thing you guys have that no one else
does."
The advisor/bodyguard leans down and whispers something into the man's ear.
The man behind the desk smiles. "Ah, yes. I must say, this has made our
rather small orginaztion grow. I presume you are speaking of Doom?"
"Of course."
"As I thought. And might I add that you may want to treat us with more
courtesy, seeing how we are the only distributors of such a valuable
resources on this side of the continent. We don't take kindly to people
coming in and bossing us around."
"I don't give a hot damn what you think, Carpacci. You are going to tell me
who sold it to you. No negotiations. No swindling. You tell me, and I
give you a nice certified credstick and don't burn you to the ground. Sound
fair?"
The advisor leans torwards Carpacci's ear, mumbling into it for only a
second. "Mr. Blade. Such threats. I don't think we can deal with you.
You will leave now." After saying that, he reaches into a desk drawer.
Before he can do anything, however, the picture blurs and the bodyguard is
underneath Blade. The view shoots to the side as Blade turns and stands,
drawing and pointing a heavy pistol at Carpacci as he stands, but Carpacci
already has a gun out and is turning torwards him.
Blade snaps the gun up to the man's temple. "You! Stop moving!"
Another man enters the room from a side door, holding a SPAS-22 "No, move
all you want Ed. This fragger's the one who's going to stop moving." He
moves the shotgun to aim towards Blade's head
Before the new guy has had a chance to finish talking, Blade moves his hand
under his trench coat in a move too fast to follow and comes up pointing
another pistol at him. The third guy under Blades foot squirms and gasps
for breath. His hands grab Blade's ankle and try to move him. Blade
doesn't even look at him.
"You know, they can put guns in cyber legs, too." The man freezes.
Lynch struts in. Taking note of the three-way standoff Blade is in, he
chuckles. "Got things under control?"
"Well it's about goddamn time. Think you could help me out here?"
"Which one do you need?"
"The one under my foot."
The three other men in the room just watch the conversation in amazement.
Sweat beads on the man with the shotgun's forehead. "You move and I'll
fraggin' blow away your friend's fraggin' head!"
Lynch just smiles again. "On three."
"O.K." Blade pauses. "Is that one, two, three go or one, two, three and
go?"
"On three. One, two, three, go."
"Isn't that after?"
"Fuck it."
Blade falls back and aims both Predators at Ed, firing. Lynch draws his two
Colt .45's and nails the man with the shot gun. All three men hit the floor
at about the same time, two with wounds oozing out of their chests. The
third man starts to scrabble away before Blade catches him in a scissor hold
with his legs. "Ah, ah. Not yet."
Blade holsters his two pistols and picks up the bodyguard/advisor.
"Before you try to put one of your stooges in your place, try to sort out
his answers before hand. It won't look like you're in charge so much."
The camera is centered on the man's sweating face. His eyes are round and
he's started to hyperventilate.
"Oh, frag. Jesus, frag, frag, aw, drek. Man, please don't, don't kill me.
I'll tell you who we got the stuff from. It's in my note book, in the top
desk drawer."
Blade turns torwards the desk as Lynch cautiously opens up the drawer and
takes out an old looking notebook.
"The guys name is, uh, Daverys. Walter Daverys. Goes by the name of
Recluse. He works out of Cairo. At least, he did when we dealt with him
last time."
"When was that?"
"Last week. Jesus, don't kill me. Please."
Blade turns back to Lynch, who has the notebook open. He looks up at Blade
and nods.
Blade sets the man back down. "Looks like another day of wine and roses for
you." Then he pulls back and hits him square in the jaw, knocking the man
out. Blade takes the notebook from Lynch and they start to leave.
Lynch turns to Blade as they walk out. "I heard what you said back there.
I didn't know your leg was cyber."
"It's not."
Lynch's laughter echoes as the door closes.
+++++end video 041057.20:15:90.MDT
So that was then. I dropped Lynch off at the airport before hitting the
streets for more info on Byrnes before I left for Newark. I figured she had
about a day on me as it was, and one more wasn't going to make that much of
a difference. Didn't find out more than what I already knew, except for
some potentially useful descriptions. Everywhere she went, she spent money
like it was going out of style. The hotel screamed money from the moment
you drove up to the moment you left. So did the places I was able to track
her shopping at. The Bard was right. This woman might be a great
biochemist, but she was no field agent. Lucky for me I guess.
Well, since I couldn't find out anymore in Vegas, I hopped a flight to
Newark. Speaking of Newark, do I get hazardous duty pay for that? Anyway,
Newark had it's own bag of tricks for me. First of all, her parents had
moved from their original address, and tracking down their new one was a
bitch. Usually, finding a couple of SINners in a city like Newark would be
easy, but her parents had not only moved, but had lost their jobs. So they,
as I found out by finding and paying off the right people, had moved into
one of the uglier sides of an ugly city. This is what I found when I got there
+++++Begin video 091057.06:01:45.EDT
From the outside, the duplex doesn't look any worse than it's neighbors. A
little sad, perhaps. But no grayer than the other houses it rubs shoulders
with. As the view travels up the short set off stairs to the door, you can
see that something isn't quite right with it. A hand, Blades, reaches out
and pushes on the door, and rusty hinges squeel as the door slowly opens.
Stepping inside, the first impression is that either a storm front hit or
the people living here doesn't keep a very clean house. Drawers are open
everywhere. Furniture is smashed, the upholstery torn apart. Tapes and
hard copy books litter the floors.
Blade takes a sniff, and then a longer one. "Ughh." He begins to walk down
a short hall to what looks like a kitchen/dining area. The area is the same
as the front. Soy and flavoring are splattered everywhere. Something
catches Blades eyes in the corner, near a sink and window. He looks up, and
something dark can be seen dripping from the ceiling and down the wall.
Blade starts opening up doors, finally finding one with a set off stairs
leading up. He takes them slowly, and finally reaches a alcove that
connects three rooms. The first two he checks are in the same condition as
the downstairs. Someone was apparently looking for something that they
wanted very badly.
Blade walks up to the third door, which is slightly a jar. He pauses a
second before pushing this door slowly open. A few flies cross the view as
he steps in.
Inside is a nightmarish scene. It looks almost as if someone had tried to
paint the walls in red blood, now gone darker with drying. The floor is
sticky as Blade walks around in the room. On one side of the bed is the
remains a womans body. She has cuts all over her. The view moves away and
into an attached bathroom. In there is a man hanging from a rope around his
neck dangling from the ceiling.
+++++end video 091057.06:01:45.EDT
As you can see, not a pretty end for either of her parents. After a little
bit of searching, however, I was able to find a few things that the killers
missed. One was a piece of clothing from an expensive store in Vegas.
Apparently, her daughter had been there. That's probably what got her
parents killed. I'll have to tell her when I pick her up. Anyway, the
other was under a magnet on the fridge. Why they didn't check there, I'll
never know. But they missed this.
+++++include picture FridgeNote.091057.06:25:67.EDT
The picture shows a short note written in very precise script on the back of
a soy cereal box. It says:
"Mom and Dad,
I've got some business to take care off. If I don't see you before I
leave, have a great time in Hawaii. I'll send you pictures of the pyramids.
Love
Libby."
+++++end include picture FridgeNote.091057,06:25:67.EDT
I think she's headed for Cairo as well. When I didn't know, though.
The Bard dropped off some info for me, which helped immensley. The target
had apparently holed up in a cheap coffin motel, and left for Cairo on the
first flight out two days ago. The next flight leave in an hour, and I've
got a ticket for it. You should recieve this message on the 16th, if the
software works right. If it doesn't, I have no idea. Either way, shortly
thereafter, you'll have my next report.]<<<<<
-- Blade <00:43:10/10-17-57>
