As soon as we get back into town, I've got a couple of phone calls to make, find out if anybody's got new leads on my dad, and especially one to John to see just what's up and what kind of trouble we're in. Plus he might want to know what we know...for a fee. :P
You call your normal contacts, who have nothing new to report. You give John's cell phone a ring. No one picks up, so you leave a message saying you're back in town. Later that night, at about midnight, you get a call from an unknown number. Picking it up, it's John, on a fairly staticy connection. "Hey, Sunny, glad you're back. We need to meet, and soon. I've run down some info you should have. Can you meet me in an hour?" He names an all-night diner you've visited a few times before near Downtown.
"Hey, great to hear from you! Sure, I'll be there!" Thirty minutes later I'm casing the joint, discretely armored under my street clothes and with my Predator in my concealed holster at the ready. The radio scanner's running. Not that I'm paranoid. Thirty-five minutes after that, after I've seen John go into the diner alone and no one else seems to be loitering around, I slide into the booth across from him. Hope he ordered me a soycaf.
There are two soycafs sitting on the table as you sit down across from John, who looks pretty high-strung, much more so than usual. "Glad you made it. Look, things have been crazy here since you left, you gotta help me take care of this." "So, after you left, I started making some discreet queries looking for someone who'd be interested in your info. I was especially looking for someone from SK, 'cause you're right, the dragon don't take shit from nobody." "I put the word out with all the usual suspects: Fastjack, Angel, Big Jim, Jimmy the Rat. Even called a guy I know at Lone Star to see if anyone was sniffing around with them looking for info." "Next morning, I wake up and I'm shaving, right? So I'm looking in the mirror, which shows the bathroom window behind me, which shows the brick wall across from my squat. And then I look close, and it also shows the guy climbing the fucking wall barehanded, and it shows his fucking gun." "I dove out of there, shaving cream on my chin, grabbed my Pred, and gave him what for. He fell off the wall, and I grabbed my emergency pack and ran. Been on the go ever since, dossing with some chummers, wherever. Been a couple more attempts like that." "Yesterday I got a ping back from a guy who knows a guy at SK who wants to talk to you. I'll give you the contact info, and finish this up fast, huh? I want my fraggin' life back." John spins a chip across the table at you, and then sits there, sipping his soycaf.
"You got any info on the people after you? I'd hate to think that you'd be selling me out to get assassins off your back." My soycaf cools in front of me.
"The guy on the wall wasn't holding on, or anything. he just had his hands and feet flat against the brick. Pretty damn freaky. The other attempts have been a bit longer distance. Someone took a shot at me down a street at night, another time a guy came at me with a knife." "As far as selling you out, I'm about to give up and head back east. Hopefully this shit will stay behind. I don't know who that phone number is for, I'm not telling you it's trustworthy. I'm just saying it's supposedly someone from SK who wants to chat."
"Thanks for the tip, and the warning too. I'll miss seeing you around. Check in with me in about two months. You can see if I made it." I take the chip, let John pay, and hightail it out of there before I can call the others, watching for anyone tailing me. My message is pretty much the same: "My fixer got a lead on a number that may or may not be SK. We need to check it out. And he's got assassins on his six, so be careful."
To group: "If this contact is what he claims to be, that could be the best answer to whether we can get a corp to provide support or funds to mess with your friend K. Sunny, I trust you won't forget to mention our recent extermination credentials along with your previous info. Corp or not, if K knows info is out and the ants get around like that, it sounds like we'd better either attack or get far far away, ASAP." To Big Jim: "The name's Istereth. A-Plus, Emvee, Sunny, Tony, and Thurgun all say you're the guy to see about all sorts of equipment issues, so they gave me your number. I've been through a couple of scrapes with them all now, and I might be in Seattle a while now. Do you know somebody good for drone repair? A jerk shot up one of my brand new jointed walking legs just before we drove in."
"Before I call, I want to look up Quint and see if he's up for some work. If so, first thing is to check out the number and see what he can dig up. Second thing is to call them through a couple of sat bounces." So I'll call up Quint, assuming no one has objections.
Next day, Quint calls back. "Yo, omae, checked out that number, It's a pre-paid cell jobby, one of those cheap disposable ones. Looks like it was sold at a Stuffer Shack in the Barrens. No clue who'll answer, but I can set up a five-bounce call for you, give you about 15 minutes talk-time before they can finish a trace, if you want."
"Great! I'm expecting a nifty job to come out of this. You interested?" Either way once he's got the bounce set up I'm making the call.