"We've all seen that type before," Nightingale rolled her eyes, and rubbed Chloe's arm encouragingly.  "So you were driving around in the Zone, and then what happened?"

Dolby noticed that Switch and Bishop are returning and unlocks the door, cycling them through the man-trap.  Chloe jumps a little, startled by the clacking sound of the maglocks.  Dolby addresses Bishop once he is inside.  "Well, is everything as expected?"

Chloe looks to Nightingale and then slumps down, exhausted and still troubled.

Bishop nods, glancing towards Chloe and Nightingale. "It is. We're instructed to keep a close eye on Chloe for the next few hours, but something tells me she'll be a bit more... cooperative now. Who has the chip?"

Having stuffed the chip down the back of his combat pants, Taurus says "My asscheeks, that's who."

"Lovely. Wipe off the char and hand it over to Mr. Dolby, would you?" Bishop responds.

Turning to the group at large, he continues. "Our employer confirmed his wishes. The chip is to be handed off to Dolby. Our principal remains Chloe, and we're to protect her until an all-clear is given in the next few hours. Any questions?"

As Taurus retrieves the chip and hands it to Dolby, he grunts "So where's the next place to keep her safe?"

Switch moves in behind Bishop and leans against the wall. He offers a simple nod to Bishop's statement about Chloe. His eyes follow Dolby and his actions as they hand over the chip.

Dolby takes the chip with a "thank you" and places it inside a padded case for memory chips that is on his desk, clicking it shut.  "I believe our business is now complete, if you will excuse me," he says indicating the door.

Nimble, who was leaning against a back wall, steps forward and addresses Bishop.  "My part in this is done.  Let's settle my fee before you go," he says.  In truth his role was finding Dolby and so that is done.

Nightingale decided that pushing Chloe for more memories right then was not going to be very successful, and might actually do more harm than good.  So she stayed beside the troubled young woman, hovering protectively as the rest of the business was concluded.

Gathering Chloe up*, the group bids farewell to Nimble and Dolby and returns to the waiting Kombat Kabb.  She walks hesitantly, picking up strength as the team moves, and passively takes a seat in the center again.  "Where to amigo?" the driver asks, putting out a cigarette now that his passengers are back.  There some gunshots in the background, perhaps two blocks away, three then a fourth and then its quiet.

---

*Someone will have tog et her up and moving, once on the move she goes on her own.

"Eh, a bar is always a good place to keep low. Someplace out of the way." Switch offers with a shrug towards Bishop.

Taurus has gently encouraged Chloe into the car.
"Can we pick somewhere well out of the way?" he asks.

With the decision made*, the driver turns his attention back to the front and the monster machine rumbles forward with a lurch before settling down to an easy drive.  Though he zigs and zags through downtown, apparently fairly expertly avoiding hotspots at this late/early hour, he makes a general course West for the corporate center.  The building where Bishop's friend has a flat is just on the edge, with decent security and underground parking.  The Kombat Kabb drops you off in front where Bishop can get you in after a brief discussion with the desk guard and a phone call to his friend.

Chloe was silent during the ride, despite being jostled around enough to bump into people on either side with every turn, staring forward and lost in thought.  The apartment is a one-bedroom unit with a living/dining area, kitchen, bathroom and powder room for guests in the main room.  It also has a walk-in closet and very small balcony.

---

Settle in.  Direct Chloe where you want her to be, she will move passively and sit or lie down.  it is past 3:00 AM at this point.  This is an RP scene, last of the mission, you may interact freely.

Around 06:00 Bishop receives the all clear from Argus.  Whomever set the bounty on Chloe nullified the open contract shortly after 02:00 and Argus is reasonably confident the messasge was widely disseminated.  He suggests if she still needs assistance that someone take her home, but his contract with Bishop is completed.  The balance of the fees deposited into Bishop's account.  I will leave this thread open if anyone wants to talk with Chloe more or take her home.

---

50 IP for successful completion of the mission.
Bishop negotiated a fee for each of you, half up front.  I will let him distribute pay.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:08, Sun 27 Nov 2022.

Given the time, Nightingale made sure Chloe was as comfortable as possible and then suggested she get some rest if she could.  Then the medtech found a corner to curl up in and followed her own advice.

A few hours later when the all-clear came in, Nightingale stretched like a cat and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.  It had been a little while since she'd spent all night on a job.  The clinic has me on day-job hours, she moaned to herself.  Once she was functional again she went to look in on Chloe, sitting beside her and waking her up gently if necessary.

"Good morning.  Looks like you're all in the clear now.  Safe to go home, if you're up to it?  You were a little disoriented last night, having trouble remembering some things.  How are you feeling now?"

Chloe wakes and also stretches like a cat, something the two women have in common apparently.  She doesn't smile though and the her expression is still one of a haunted woman.  "Am I really awake?" she reaches out gingerly and touches Nightingale's arm, then looks at her own hand in fascination.  "It's been a while since my hands do what I tell them," she says without humor.

Nightingale grabbed Chloe's hand and squeezed it.  "You are awake, and you're in control.  Whatever that chip was, it's gone now."

She turned slightly in her seat, to more fully face Chloe.  "I can't even imagine what you've been through, but I do think talking about it will help.  You tried a little last night, mentioning a client named Mechaslav?  Do you remember anything more?"  Nightingale's expression hardened noticeably.

"Somebody ought to pay for what they did to you."

Chloe gives Nightingale her first smile since the chip was removed, squeezing hr hand back and holding it for a moment.  Then she released her grip.  "Mechaslav is a regular client; Russian mafia, likes redheads," she says pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around them.  "Last clear thing I remember, we went to an underground club in the Zone.  I think he had some business there.  We bought drinks, I ..." she closes her eyes grasping for the memory.  "That's it.  They must have put a mickey in my drink, an occupational hazard unfortunately.  I'm glad I don't remember everything they probably did to me when I was out," she says the last quite bitterly.  "The rest is sketchy.  Like trying to remember a movie I saw a long time ago.  Sometimes I could see what was going on, sometimes I couldn't, like I was asleep.  I felt... like her often, like we were the same person," she trails off again, turning her head on her side and resting her cheek on her knees.

Nightingale remained silent for a while, letting Chloe work through things in her mind, before saying, "Do you know why they did it?  Could you tell if there was a purpose to it all?  Was this AI personality trying to accomplish something through you?"

In addition to simply being curious about the reason behind the attack on Chloe, Nightingale thought it important to find out what they could for the girl's safety.  If the med tech had to guess, she figured Chloe had regular access to someone or something, and the AI implant was used/going to be used to leverage that access for someone.  For Mechaslav, or perhaps against Mechaslav.

"Oh it had a purpose, yeah," she said suddenly a bit animated.  "It wanted to be human.  Sounds like a cliche, but it wanted to be free, mobile and as human as possible," she says.  After thinking a minute, she adds, "Mechaslav is a smuggler; in and out, people, and contraband.  There is a connection there for certain."

"That makes sense, I guess," Nightingale said, but there was still something bothering her.  "But why you, do you think?  Was it just convenience or was there another reason why they would plug the thing into you?"

"I don't know.  And why try to kill me now, when that thing was there, and not earlier?  What changed yesterday?" she asked starting to focus on the unanswered questions of her recent fate.

Looking out of the bedroom door at the others sitting or standing around in the living room, she asked Nightingale, "now what?  What happens next?"

"You go back to your life again, with you," she pointed at finger at Chloe's chest, "in control.  We can make sure you get home, for starters.  I can go with you, if you like."

"And maybe we can meet for drinks in a week or so, and you can fill me in on how things are going for you.  Just in case you find any side effects or anything."  Nightingale smiled.  "I am a doc, after all."

Switch never kept "business" hours, though business hours these days were a bit more fluid. Instead he tapped gently away on his deck, writing code and following up on leads. As the others stirred he posed as indifferent but listened to their conversations, new leads could come of it or interesting information. An AI that wanted to be free, interesting he though to himself as that revelation was spoken.

Okay.  We will fade to black at this point with a card at the end saying that the team returned Chloe to her home safely and then went their separate ways, exchanging contact information.

Thank you Group 2.  More on what is next in the OOC thread.