(A little side note due to a missing source book and it being so long since I have played a game, I made an error. It has been brought to my attention that bioware has the same effect on mana users as cyberware. So Blue Dawgs bioware is no longer a aspect of the story thank you. (But he is still a massive iron pumping dog shaman.)

As usual it was Grim who took this new info on the teams sudden brittle hold on life with the least amount of emotion and was the first to swing into action. "Okay people were not worm food yet so if we want to keep on breathen we got to move quickly and smarter then the hounds on our trail. Now the most important thing to do is to get the slot into the hands that want him as quick as possible while keeping a low profile. So here’s how it’s going to have to work I’m going to contact Mr. Telois and see what he has to say. Atlas making as little noise as possible line us up another safe house two if possible don’t go anywhere you can be seen and don’t touch any fixer. We need to keep this as in-house as possible. Tucker get a line on a new ride, and make damn sure you can trust who ever it is you going to have to talk to you two."

Tucker gave a sharp nod and said "Yeah I got a chummer who owes be big time. Saved his kids life so he wont spill on us. But he isn’t well connected."

"Doesn’t matter just have him rent us a van so we can roll when we have too."

"Right I’ll get on that." Said Tucker as he turned to use his wrist phone he suddenly stopped and walked over to the wall unit. Tank gave a questioning look so Tucker explained. "I don’t know who could be listen in over my number its safer this way."

Grim then turned to his mana workers and said. "You two are going to double up the wards around this place I don’t want anyone to use ritual magic to find us. I expect someone to eventually to search our places and they will most likely find something there they can use to trace us back to here." The two spell worms gave nods and moved off to do as ordered.

"Tank you get everything together if we have to move quickly I don’t want leave anything behind." Tank sketched a brief salute and got to work getting all their gear together in the center of the room.

Grim walked over to a corner of the doss to where they had the secured satellite telecom hooked and pushed the automatic dial for Mr.Telois. The line chirped twice before it was picked up by a stone faced norm of indeterminable asin descent. "Grim do you still have the target?." The norm asked without any preamble.

"We do, but as you most likely now our existence has come into serious jeopardy, and we would appreciate a immediate drop-off location." Respond Grim with as much emotion as the talent headhunter had given.

"We are well informed of the recent development in your situation, however the increased scrutiny for your team and Mr.Schmidt has further complicated the extraction of package. So for the time being you will have to just continue to evade and lay low until something can work itself out." Said Mr.Telois

Almost before the hard faced asin had stopped speaking Grim was shaking his head. "Sorry my friend but that was not the job we were hired for. You hired us to do a snatch and grab, not to run around and play target for every run in the Plex with a gun and nothing better to do. This run has lost its appeal for us please, let us know where we can drop off Mr.Schmidt or we will be forced to put him back where we found him.’’ Grim stated with deadly seriousness.

Telois moved for the first time since the discussion had begun, he leaned back into his chair and adopted a thoughtful expression. "Well I can agree with you this is indeed a increase in agreed upon duties. Perhaps some increased compensation is in order, say fifty percent of all original figures." He said with and attitude of one who was being generous into the realm of the exceptional.

Grim looked at him for a second and without giving a single thing away said. "Triple."

"WHAT!!!!!! HAVE YOU GONE INSANE." Demand the now irate headhunter so loudly that Tank looked over from where he had assembling the gear.

"You heard me Mr.Telois. You know have us going against the entire Metroplex. I personally don’t see us having much of a chance of survival. And my team knows it too, so they are going to need a incentive something to push for and I think this new price tag will do nicely."

The momentary lose of control might have never had occurred as iron control once more asserted itself. "Very well I concede your point however know that the limit has been reached." Telois paused waiting for any arguments. Seeing none forthcoming he continued. "Now may I speak with Mr.Schmidt?"

Grim gave a wicked chuckle and said. "I am afraid that our good friend Wendell is tied up at the moment."

Telois eyes sharpened. "What do you mean by that? What has become of him?"

For an answer Grim tilted the camera around so that it showed the form of Wendell still struggling on the floor wrapped in duct tape. Titling the camera back up Grim explained. "Wendell had a problem keeping his mouth shut and that was endangering the success of this mission. So steps had to be taken. We only promised to deliver him we never said he’d be happy when he got there."

"I see and I understand completely mission security and all that." The talent scout was not completely able to smoother the grin that was trying to break free. He to had had homicidal urges towards Wendell during the working out of the extraction deal.

"We currently looking for a secondary base of operation and transpiration is there any way you could offer support on ether of these things" Asked Grim

Telois let a small sigh pass his lips and said. "I am afraid not all of our city resources are being watched and all of our secondary operatives can’t be trusted with this information. You are going to have to rely on your on source for the time being. Their is however something in the works that should easy some the scrutiny you are under. With some much of its security resources spread out Fuchi has left its holdings vulnerable and I’ve several other teams in motion to exploit this. After they take some hits they, Fuchi should reduce the force they have on the streets."

Grim nodded and said. "Very well then I will contact you in twelve hours then."

Telois gave a nod and broke the connection. Grim sat there a moment longer gathering his thought and then walked over to where Atlas was withdrawing the datajack from his C2 deck (cranial cyberdeck). "Well I got two possibilities worked out nether of them much good. First one I went sneaky and rented a house boat on Shadow Lake over in Snohomish. Its quiet secluded and low tech so no tracing us, however its retreat options are very limited and it will be an easy target if we get caught there. We will be the literal sitting ducks." He sighed and rubbed his temples. "The other idea I was kicking around is a flop house I heard of. It’s run by the Tongs. They rent it out for ........ parties and the such. I was thinking we have Ghostly caste a Mask spell on herself, Tucker, and the worm make them look like a trio of scared teenage girls. Then we have Nevermore make us look like big mean deviants ready to have some fun for the weekend. We show up at the doss and then me and Tucker deactivate what ever recording devices they got there and have the spell slingers work their mojo and we have a safe house for the weekend."

Grim narrowed his eyes as he reviewed these options. "Lets have a word with the rest of the team and gets some input. In the mean time Atlas I want to get ready to get something’s into play for me. Now as may or may not now you have a reputation of ... Ah....excessiveness."

For his part Atlas just swelled his chest at this. "Yeah but that’s what combat deckers do. We are the warriors of the Matrix. The others are nothing but a pack of thieves and spies. But to us the Matrix is our battle ground." He took a deep breathe to go on extolling the virtues of combat deckers.

Grim quickly jumped in. " Right right. Anyway like I was saying, that you are known to be inclined to the extreme and your lack of the suave touch, in their minds anyway, they will most likely believe it when you start lining up safe houses with only the slightest concern for stealth.’

"But boss they will be on use in a hot second what’s the point...." He paused a moment his eye clouded in doubt. Grim just let him go, to figure it out for himself. Soon he started nodding. " Yeah yeah I get it we won’t be there when they show up. The will end up chasing there tails all over the Plex we sit tight and wait for things to cool off. Pretty wiz boss man."

"Not only that but if as many teams are out there as I think, there is a pretty good chance that they will get all the same clues and show up at the same doss. As accidents start cropping up people will start shooting. If were lucky we should lose a few hunters while we wait." Said Grim.

Atlas nodded thoughtfully but his head slowly stopped its bobbing as something occurred to him. "Hey boss good plan but one little problem. Some of these deckers are bond to notice the various safe houses. They would have to be brain friend not to think something’s up."

"Yeah I thought of that myself but the way I figure it they can’t afford not to check them out. Could you? No they will check them out just to be sure. If only the mages but a lot of them will not trust the spell worms and what to do a onsite inspection."

"I see what you are saying boss. We’ll I’ll get things sit up here before I start screaming here I am all over the net." said the decker

"All right I’m going to go brief the rest of the team." Replied Grim

At he turned to walk over to Tucker. There came a massive explosion and the door flew of it’s hinges to bounce wildly down the hallway. Through the smoke Grim could make forms moving and then came the flashes of gun fire.

Oh derk was the thought shared by all The Hunters in the doss.