After the briefing, you head back to the Hyperion.  You step inside behind Locke, noticing the battle scars and quickly patched holes in the hole.  As you begin walking toward the bridge, the lights flicker and go out.

"Damn," Locke mutters and bangs a hand against the nearby console.  Immediately, the lights come back on.  "She's not at a hundred percent.  That's for sure."

"Don't worry," Silicon, your pilot, reassures you all.  "It'll get us there and back."

"Just one problem," Hammer says, shaking his head.  You glance over at the technician, the one who knows the ship better than anyone.  "I had to reroute some wiring, resource some conduits, and make a few other adjustments.  Problem is, that takes our EMP offline.  If we get any Calamari coming our way, we're in deep--"

"Spare me the details," Locke says.  "We've got to complete this mission and then lets retool the whole ship.  Take a long break.  What do you say?"

"As long as the hardline works, I'm good," X, your operator, says.

Within a few hours, the ship is flying far away from Zion and toward the surface once more.  Silicon pulls the Hyperion up next to a strange ship anchored to the ground, the Nautilus.  Locke greets the captain of that ship and then explains to you, "The Nautilus is a semi-permanent installation here.  Our operatives work out of it night and day...the ones who don't come out of the Matrix very often.  Jinx is working out of the Nautilus."

Locke takes you on a brief tour so you can see Jinx's face and recognize him.  The room you enter is nothing more than a repository for bodies, all jacked into the Matrix, twenty of them at least.  Jinx is about thirty, with dark hair and bushy brows.  He is well groomed and slightly muscular.

Locke says, "You have to work out of the Hyperion though.  Otherwise, if you are detected, the Nautilus could be put in jeopardy.  As it stands, it has never been detected.  Only our top operatives are assigned to it."

When you are back on the Hyperion, Silicon finds the hardline.  You sit back in your seats, ready for the jolt, and then...

...you find yourselves in an office building.  It is after work hours, and the sky outside is dark.  X has shown you the map, so you begin the trek to where Jinx awaits you.

The building's lights are off, its doors closed but not locked.  You slip in quietly.  It is also an office building.  You step in and walk toward the back office where the meeting is scheduled.  The office door is slightly ajar.  You step inside to turn on the lights and then--

"Stop right where you're at," a woman's voice says from across the room.  "I have a gun pointed right at your head."  It is dark, and you can see nothing.

Screed freezes and then waves the others down into non-threatening poses.  He smiles and says, "But do you have the safety off.  It is always important that when you are preparing to use your weapon, that you leave the safety on, but when you are ready to fire, you have to switch it off.  Many people make that mistake.  But now down to business, you invited us here, so I am going to assume that you would like to leave my head in one piece so that my ears can keep working.  My name is Screed, and I'm here to help."  He finishes with another smile and waits.

Looking like a bag lady especially next to Screed's finery, Rabbit brings up the rear of the caravan shuffling along and checking six whenever she stops to scratch imaginary lice. Although she appears to carry one of the sports bags with her left hand, the strap of the ripstop nylon is slung across her chest. She grasps the suppressed Beretta hidden inside.

When column comes to an abrupt stop at the doorway to the conference room, Rabbit turns around and backs up to the last point of cover.

 Cala stops walking, but does not change her posture. "That is physically impossible; there are six of us, and as I can hear no one else, I must assume you are alone.
 "I should also note that, if you were to fire, your position would be given away. Assuming a you are carrying a pistol, your maximum rate of fire is likely three shots per second. Even if you were to incapacitate one of us with each bullet, the others would then have a very good idea of where you are," she says, crossing her arms over her chest. "Furthermore, I assure you that, if your first shots fail to remove me from combat, I will make existence very painful for you. I would suggest you lower your weapon and show yourself."

Screed steps forward and to the side one step, to partially block Cala.  "No one is going to hurt anyone, right now.  Let's not lose our heads here."  He chuckles as he continues, "Now if the one who would bring bad luck would care to speak, we are here to meet with you.  Of course, your voice seems to be a little higher than I would have expected from seeing you."  He chuckles again.

"I don't think this is the one we seek."  Shadow crosses his arms and stares at the woman. "Are you wanting some sort of secret password?" While conversing with the woman, Shadow's hands slowly grip the handles of his pistols inside his jacket.  His hands begin to twitch at the thought of having to wait because of this 'person'.

Dracos flexes his hands, know that through the code within them, he could bring chaos to the area. He tries to his his lack of height to sneak behind the group and into the shadows of the room...

The woman laughs from back in the darkness.  "A pistol fires three times per second?  Maybe for a human.  A password?  You think you are here to meet me for something?  For what?"

Jade mutters, "Who was it said we don't need to come in here ready to shoot em up?"  Then, "Get yourselves ready."  She flips the light switch.

 "Then my suspicions were correct, you are a machine," Cala says calmly. "I assume you have already killed the man we were here to meet?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:05, Thu 08 Sept 2005.

"There are more in this world than men and machines," the woman says.

The lights come on, and you see a woman's head poking up from behind a desk.  She carries two pistols, one in each hand, and they are pointed directly at you.

She cocks an eyebrow and says to Cala, "It looks to me like you are the machine.  Do these humans know who you are?"  Both her pistols adjust their aim to point straight at Cala.

 "You see code?" Cala asks, ignoring the question.

"I see it and control it," she says with a smile.  "I'm sure you don't want a demonstration now, do you?"

 "No," Cala says simply. "Who are you?"

Again, Screed tries to interject himself between the pistols and Cala.  Referring to Cala, he says, "She is our friend, and I believe she has a good point.  I am Screed, and these are my companions.  Who might you be?"

 Cala looks as if she is about to say something, but stops. She bows her head to Screed and steps back slightly.

"You know your friend's a squid?" the woman asks, apparently a genuine question, as though informing them for the first time.  Her guns are still trained on Cala.  "You better tell me what you did to Jinx."

Rabbit glances backwards to see if anyone else is outside the conference room then returns her attention to the entrance of the building. The earplugs are tucked into a Velcro sealed breast pocket, and the darkened swimmers goggle are pushed up onto her forehead like a makeshift headband.

Now stationary and crouched down, she switches from the pistol to the automatic rifle and mounts the silencer on the M16. As with the pistol the first round is already chambered.

Screed nods once at the squid reference, acknowledging the question.  He blinks at surprise at the information of the missing Jinx.  "What do you mean Jinx is missing?  And why should we be the ones telling you?  You saw with your own eyes, us arriving.  He was alive the last we saw on the outside just a little while ago.  I ask again, who are you, and what are you doing here.  I was not informed that there was supposed to be someone else at this meeting."  Screed look around for a landline as they are the safest to make contact.  While doing so he informs the others, "She is not AI so she is human.  She is either with us or with the regime.  Make sure the perimeter is secure."  Turning back to the lady, "Okay, time is short.  Make off with some information.  I'll even ask nicely."  He pauses, smiles, and says, "Please?"  He tries not to be gruff and is keeping things pleasant for the moment.  His hands are clearly visible and empty.

"Great." Shadow's eyes roll back into his head and his hands slap his hips "How come nothing ever goes as planned.  Geesh.  I'm gonna check the area out."  Shadow storms off towards the door "Oh and I'm sure she doesn't know where Jinx is, otherwise she would have shot us full of holes by now.  So she must be a friend of his, perhaps one of his contacts."  Muttering under his breath, Shadow looks out the door.

Rabbit calls over to Shadow, "What's Jinx got to say now, that they couldn't tell us in the flesh."

Screed chuckles at Shadow's antics but keeps his eyes on the lady.

Dracos freezes when the light flips on, quickly placing his hands on the back of his head and arching backwards. Smiling nervously, he skitters back within the group. He moves out to the hall they just came from and glanced towards rabbit, motioning the sign for a phone...

Rabbit digs out her cellular with one hand while pointing with the rifle muzzle towards a regular phone sitting on a desk.

Slipping towards her, he whispers, "Go Call X... See what she registers as in teh code...she's looking for Jinx..."

Rabbit nods and holds the cellular telephone slightly away from her ear so Dracos can listen in. "Operator, this is Rabbit. We're at the meetpoint but Jinx is absent. A woman of unknown allegiance is here looking for Jinx, too. Dracos wants to know what her code looks like. And get us the hell out of here to someplace safe."

The woman stands up straight and shakes her head.  "I don't know if I can trust you," she says.  "At this rate, you'll botch it up."  She lowers her guns.  "First, never tell anyone your handle who isn't from Zion or use a Zion handle where it could be heard by Zero-One.  Second, never, ever call back to your ship in a zone of silence.  Third, walking around with a bunch of guns hanging out makes you look very suspicious.  And fourth, never underestimate your opponent."

In the blink of an eye, the woman is suddenly standing in front of Rabbit and holding Rabbit's phone, and Rabbit is disarmed.

"And fifth," the woman says with a smile, handing Rabbit back her gun, "I am Jinx."  She bows her head, concentrating.  She begins to shimmer and change shape.  Jinx is standing in front of you.

In a much deeper voice than the woman's, Jinx says, "You have a ways to go before getting that advanced.  I'm going to give you directions to the meeting place with Jaguar."  He scribbles something on a paper.  "He'll be waiting for you there in fifteen minutes."  Jinx glances at his watch.  "It's about a twenty minute walk.  I'd do this myself, but I've been tagged by Zero-One.  And if Zero-One's alarms go off, so do the Merovingians."

He hands the paper to Screed and then lifts something from the desk -- tiny earpieces.  "Take these.  They're short range and only work within the Matrix, but at least I can talk to you, although you may have to switch them off if the Merovingians detect you.  I can also contact my ship directly via the hardline, so I'll tell you if there are any instructions from above."

He gives you each an earpiece, which also broadcasts through subvocalization by a curved piece down to your throat.  "The password for Jaguar is 'exile asset.'  You can use his handle since he's not from Zion.  Any questions?"

Rabbit holds out her hand and asks, "Are you going to give me my phone back?"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:48, Fri 09 Sept 2005.

PM

Rabbit continues to hold out her hand waiting for the return of her cellular telephone. "Speaking of your ship, what is its name?"

ed: typo
This message was last edited by the player at 19:32, Fri 09 Sept 2005.

Screed takes the paper and examines it.  He sighs and says, "Well, I gues we're not going to have time for a food stop then."  He looks up at Jinx and says, "Thank you for handing us our behinds.  I guess we will take it from here.  I want to talk to you later and ask you some why's though."  He looks at Rabbit and then the others, "We've got less than fifteen minutes to make a twenty minute trip.  We'd better hurry."  He nods to Jinx and starts to head out the door while looking at the note.  Finally, he hands it off to Jade.  He speaks quietly, "Just in case, you know."

Jinx says, "My ship is the Nautilus.  You must be the group from the Hyperion."  He hands Rabbit back her phone.  Then he points to the note in Jade's hand.  "That message will self-destruct in 15 seconds."  He waits a moment as you look around at each other.  "Just kidding, but I do need it back.  You don't want to have any evidence of our asset getting out to either the Merovingians or Zero-One."  Making sure you know where to go, he takes the note back from Jade.  "Good luck.  Any last questions?"

Unamused by Jinx's hijinks, Rabbit accepts her cellular telephone back with a terse, "Thanks." While the others head out, Rabbit rearranges her junk so the muzzle end of the assault rifle is hidden in the left gym bag and the butt stock end is concealed under her poncho. As before, she brings up the rear of the caravan.

Screed stops for a moment and asks, "Yes.  Are there any weapon checkpoints between here and there, and what is the best way of handling our contact, since you have met him before."  He shouldes the attache case ready to leave.

 Cala remains silent, but watches intently as Jinx runs through his little display.

Jinx says, "He is nervous.  Just call him Jaguar and tell him I sent you.  Try to keep him collected and calm.  You won't be passing any checkpoints of any kind.  Just keep low key and keep him talking.  Get as much information as you can from him because he's not going to volunteer anything.  He's very concerned for his own safety."

"I'm ready to rock and roll," Jade says, hiding her guns underneath her trenchcoat but within easy reach.

Screed says, "Thanks.  Okay, then... let's rock and roll, or rap, or jazz, or industrial, whatever floats your boat.  But you've heard the man.  Nothing to make our contact any more nervous than he is.  Of course, alive is more important than nervous.  Let's move out.  And we need to move like we don't have enough time to get there."  Screed begins to trot out without any more interplay with Jinx.  As they move out, he suggests,"Okay, you all know what you are good at.  No firing unless we have no other option."

PM

Screed advises, "Remember, watch our threes and don't forget to look up once in a while."  He hurries along, putting speed ahead of stealth since they are so far behind.  He wonders what the others are thinking.

Watch our three's?  We didn't even know what our contact was gonna look like and we screwed that up. Shadow points towards the man/woman figure What makes you think we're gonna know what this Jaguar looks like. Shadow runs his hands through his hair Man we are gonna end up punching something...hard.  But hey, thats way pays the bills right?  At Screed's request Shadow doesn't get his pistols out but merely cracks his knuckles and follows along with the others.

"Yeah, uh, three's.  You know, left, right, back, and forward.  It's like watching your six, but more so, ya know."  Screed unzips the top of his bag to get easy access to his weapons.

 Cala shoots an annoyed glance at Jinx before following the others out.

Before entering the zone of radio silence, Rabbit sets her cellular telephone to vibrate mode and mute before turning it off and securing it in a pants pocket. Not wanting to run down the street like a camel with its tail on fire, she ends up trailing in the shadows a couple dozen yards back of the group.