After giving the crew the address, Caduceus leaned against his motorcycle and set to keeping watch.  While waiting he conjured up a windy little sidekick, both for company and to be prepared for unforeseen surprises.

Summoning a Force 3 Wind Spirit.
09:27, Today: Caduceus rolled 5 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 with rolls of 3,5,4,1,3,3.  Conjure Force 3 Wind Spirit.
09:29, Today: Caduceus rolled 4 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 with rolls of 5,1,4,2,3,5.  Drain test.

Noruas should speak up IC and say where he wants to be dropped and that he wants White Duck with him

Is there any way I can just stay in the van?

I want to look a little further into our J, our newly acquainted friend Junior, and Henderson.  Know of anywhere that I can keep my meat safe and sound while I go beat the bushes?

Possibly, but you'd need a wireless tap with a high enough rating for your deck - and I don't have one.  I'd also have to rig a way for your antenna to sit outside the faraday cage you'd be sitting inside.  On the plus side, I could set up something so I could cut your feed remotely if my camera notices you frothing at the mouth or bleeding from your ears. :>  Likely something worth setting up for down the road.

"Cudda done dat when ya had da connect'n.  I don got nuttin dat secure ta drop ya at.  Could stick ya in a coffin.  Er fine a soycaf place an mebe Whitey'd watcha."

Duck smirks.

"I mean, I guess I can stare at him while he's jacked-in a little longer, but I have a lot more experience than most people with staring at folks whilst they're jacked in, and it's kinda boring. Sorta part of why I left Louisiana to begin with. If there's nothing better for me to do, then fine, but I'd like you to stop somewhere to let me at least grab something to read first."

Sorry for the late reply.

Yeah, I'm not sure that staying back at Tee Hee's place would've been good for my health.  Alright, fine.  Check and see if there are any soykafes or hotels nearby the teashop.  If not, then just drop me off at this address. He hands Copperhead an address scrawled on a scrap piece of paper. (It's a safehouse of mine.  Actually I have no idea what the address is since BB and I never talked about it in detail.  I just know I have one.)

Noruas's safehouse isn't too far out of the way. Doesn't seem like the best neighborhood, but you've certainly driven through worse.

(Up to you all what the order is. That'll determine when you regroup at Orion's.)

Copperhead dials the snake shaman back.  "Der a coffin place er a soycaf dat looks like is gots banwidth near der?  Udderwise I's gonna drop da decker at 'is squat 'for Whitey an I joins ya."

Caduceus glanced around to see if there was anything in his immediate vicinity that matched Copperhead's specifications and considered sending his wind spirit out to search for one if there wasn't.  He conveyed the results of his search to the rigger.

OOC: would a spirit be able to search for something like a specific type of building?  Or is that a foreign concept to them?

My presumption is it's a very foreign concept.  You'll glance up and down the street and Papa will either say you find something or you don't - potentially based on whether he decides it's more amusing if we're split up or together :>

Detecting matrix bandwidth is definitely a trick a spirit would not understand. But just with eyeballs, at this hour the area is mostly quiet, and it's mostly shops and light residential (and decay. Lots of decay.) Not a lot of places for someone to just squat for a while. There's a bar on the corner. Advertises as 24-hours. Might have some luck there.

"Why not just stop at that bar? Looks like we can get access there." observes Duck as they approach the location. It'd also be a good spot to have a smoke, he'd thought, his anxiety starting to build a bit as he rides along without his usual crutch.

"Soka"

The Buffalo rumbled into sight about 10 minutes later and did a rather extraordinary job of parallel parking between two minis.  There was a faint woosh as her drone settled onto the roof of an adjacent building after doing a scan of the local area.

"Kin onaya git me a soykaf 'for ya comes back?"

She set to monitoring the pulse of the now wakened city, looking for any sign of their quarry.

"Sure, though I'll have to bring you folks to my neighborhood at some point for some *real* coffee. Maybe after we get paid, ya?" he muses, keeping the factor of whether they all survive in the subtext where it belongs. He hops out of the van, stretching his arms and legs a bit before lighting up a smoke, inhaling deeply, then exhaling with relief, a thick plume blowing out from his nose and mouth. He'd known from plenty of articles and judgmental folks that the act was slowly killing him, but with a lifestyle that was so likely to be fatal to those that followed it, it seemed foolish for him *not* to smoke. He enjoyed it, could die any minute from no fault of his own, and knew fully well his odds of making it into an early retirement when he hit his 40's were slim to none. He waited calmly on Nouras to disembark, noting the slight chill in the night air and understanding just a little more why Copperhead didn't like to leave her van.

Caduceus switched to mics once the group got close enough.  "I'll keep a look out here at the store front.  I got a wind spirit keeping me company.  Let me know if you see him from your drones, Copperhead.  I could still see if my contact at the college would be able to get us in touch with him too, if you think it would be advantageous to explore other routs while we do our stakeout."

"We don gots a lotta time.  So yeah, poke yer contac too."

"Will do. Let me know if you spot our guy Hendrix."

Caduceus flipped through his contacts for a moment until he found the one he was looking for.  Professor Barney Blight.  "Professor Blight, it's Caduceus.  Keeping fit?  Say, you know how I like to broaden my knowledge base?  There is a professor who teaches Matrix Geometry.  Professor Hendrix?  What would be a good way to contact him for some off-the-books private tutelage?  I need a crash course like you wouldn't believe."

Noruas hopped out of the van behind White Duck and strolled towards the kafe with him.

He finds a spot in the kafe that allows his presence to be hidden by the larger human, and begins setting up the necessary equipment.  Once he finishes plugging in, he looks at WD and says, Do me a favor and help me order an espresso.  I'll probably need it once I get back...  And please keep watch of my body.  Thanks.

Duck nods, setting up the order and taking a relaxed seat next to Nouras whilst he's jacked-in. He pulls out an old comic book from his coat, unrolls it, an old reprint of House of Secrets #92, the first appearance of Swamp Thing, and starts reading while he waits.

"I come all the way up to Seattle and end up 'trix-sitting anyway. My brothers would laugh." he thinks to himself.

The bar may be quite the party joint at night, but right now it's so dead, it might actually be closed. There's a few neon lights advertising Tekla beer and 'whiski'. Down half a flight of steps, the door seems at first to be locked, but a firm tug and it opens. The threshold is sticky, and the interior has the scent rather akin to an armpit. There's a long bar, apparently made out of brown and black printed plastic, and a handful of small tables and booths.

Surprisingly enough, down by the "band corner", there's a small network jack. It's not fast, and it's not clean, but it is definitely a thing Noruas can plug his brain into directly.

It's about ten minutes before a middle-aged man in a t-shirt and sweat pants walks in from a service door behind the bar. He notes you two with a look of surprise, then leaves back through the service door.


Professor Blight responds, "Ah, Caduceus! How are things, how are things. You know, we have a new class coming out soon. You'd like it. I'd like it if you liked it. You should come.

"Matrix Geom... why would you want to... Pfft. Matrix geometry?? I've never... what are you going to go into next, drone rigging?? Huff. It doesn't even matter. Hendrix doesn't work any more. He resigned from his post some time ago and disappeared. It's a difficult life, us professors lead."

Duck narrows his eyes, checking Nouras for just a brief moment before immediately trailing the man in a t-shirt and sweat pants. He pulls up his hand to his ear and relays via comm.

"Got a real conspicuous fella here, turned heel and bolted as soon as he saw Captain N and I sittin' around using the jack. Could be coincidence, but I don't like coincidences, too tidy. Trying to keep eyes on him." and he does just that, hoping the trail hasn't already gone cold.

"Watchin"

There was a woosh from her drone's vectored thrust engines before she'd even finished the word.  She ran a quick scan of the building, looking for occupants and to see what she could through the typically grimy and pitted windows.  You'd think that keeping things clean would be straight-forward given the amount of rain in Seattle.  At least until you thought about what was in the rain.  She'd watch a news report that had a full spectral analysis of a bunch of rain water a few months ago.  That's when she'd invested in her respirator and heavier outdoor clothing.  Watching the nail eaten away on the slow motion camera had left her feeling pity for her poor vehicles.

"Middle aged, sweat pants, left from the service door. Very notably saw us, then turned heel." he says as he goes through the service door himself, trusting that the café employees would make sure Nouras didn't start bleeding from his eyeballs or anything gruesome like that.

"Heh, maybe I will take up drone rigging.  But no time right now.  I need that matrix geometry, like, yesterday.  For reasons that are... sensitive.  And the guy I know said that Hendrix would be the only guy for what I need.  So ya sure he didn't leave a forwarding address or something?  Or can you put me in contact with anyone who might have a good idea of how to reach him?  Just give me a name and number and I'll happily do all the heavy lifting."

The fellow in the bar doesn't appear to leave via any external entrance. He's still in the building somewhere.


As Caduceus asks his questions, Copperhead, and a moment later Caduceus himself, notice a pouch-bellied man in a worn sweater and old slacks, long, grey hair tied back into a ponytail, drag his feet down the sidewalk towards Orion's. It takes a moment to recognize "Flair" from the holocube.