The target I was hired to hit was named Asyah binti Musa. Some big time business person that pissed off the wrong people I guess.

I was given information on her location in the office and her guards patrol schedule. I knew this wouldn’t be too hard, considering these people don’t expect some midget assassin to fly in there. They never do…

Using the security card and codes given to me I was able to access through the entrance I was given intel on. Everything is as my contact said when I entered the building. Unguarded, the back entrance and stairwell only had cameras up to the target floor. The employer gave a guarantee that all the cameras would either be off or recognize an IFF code I had received and mark me as non-existent in the system.

I reached the target floor. Thinking to myself that it had been a while since I had taken a life. This time I was doing it for money, for myself. I knew I was ready for it; it wouldn’t be much different than taking out scores of rednecks like I did in Texas.

Before entering the first door, I set off the comm scrambler that was given to me by my employer. They said it would shut down communications for the targets guards while I operate. With a knife drawn, I entered the door and the first guard was only a couple of feet away from the door, right on time. I stabbed the unarmored part of his thigh. He dropped, in pain. I pulled his head back and slit his throat. His life ended with a gurgle, drowning in his own blood.

Dateline: September 20, 2050, 11:25

Over the past few days, the Edgerunners have been hired by a shady maybe-fighting-pit owner/manager, maybe-accountant to rescue his maybe-sister/maybe-biotech-enhanced-pit-fighter, hit in the face (twice), interrogated and scoped out a church for a burgling, and nearly murdered one of their best leads then brought him to a hospital to get patched up. The life of an Edgerunner is never dull.

After Twinkletoes and Animal, two pitfighters who were witnesses to the abduction whom the team promptly attempted to kill upon meeting them (mind you, that meeting was catalyzed by a metal fist to an already-broken nose), were brought to the hospital, the team split up. Wormwood stayed in the hospital, getting tended to by a doctor – male, luckily for him – and his nose was reset. He spent the time contemplating his bill trying to narrow down the girl from Amon Zero – successfully, he thinks. Maybe. He’s not really sure, but at least he’s got a name and an address – somewhere to start.

Candyman and Mei, meanwhile, made a bit better usage of their time. Candy was able to contact the Edgerunner’s employer, Benjamin – though it was a bear and a half, and Benjamin dodged any attempt Candy could make for a physical meeting, asking them to contact him when they have his sister or solid information, and only then – saying he didn’t want to get his hopes up. Candy was able to secure a figure for their services, however – $170,000 for the girl, safe and sound, or half that for her location.

Mei spent her time browsing through Cyberspace, researching those the Edgerunners have met along the way. Archivist Studour checked out – everything the team had uncovered at the Archive seemed to hold up, though he appeared to have quit his previous job under a bit of a cloud – something to do with a botched futures trade of some kind costing the company billions. Eleanor she could find little of – she was the daughter of a lower-class Glitterati family who bucked the trends and joined the Night City Police Force. She abruptly quit, or took an extended leave, two years ago. She was a model officer up until that time; nothing she can find points to why Eleanor quit, unfortunately, or what she’s been doing since.

Information on Benjamin started off pretty similar – the employer’s story seemed to check out, even the images of Ben and Eleanor together showed the people they were expecting. And then Mei came upon one story in particular that had apparently been damned-near buried – it was on a single website, and she couldn’t find any matching articles elsewhere; it was either a falsification or something swept the web clean of other mentions and this one was somehow left in. It was a news report on a donation to a muscular dystrophy foundation, now operated by the Umbra Corporation, dedicated to Benjamin Sanders – but the donation clearly read ‘In Memoriam Of’ Benjamin Sanders.

Mei had little to no luck with tracking down the mysterious drug the team found in Eleanor’s rented no-tell motel room; there were just too many possibilities, and an unlabeled vial isn’t much to go on. Candyman was able to do a little better, entrusting the vial to a woman he knew – a surgeon specializing in cyberware and human augmentation technologies. It is from her that a recent message was sent, requesting Candyman’s presence at the W. Hartnell Community Hospital.

Now the team stands in a laboratory room in the deeps of the hospital, Dr. Vano in front of them before a computer terminal, a bioanalyzer machine hooked up to it. As the rest of the team watch, Pitbull with an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips, Candyman approaches the Doctor. “Thanks for meeting us on such short notice Dr. Vano. How is Tabitha doing, she’s what, in third grade this year. Growing up fast.” “Hopefully this analysis will shed some light on our mystery.” Mei adds, clearly running her language software. Dr. Elsbeth Vano look sup from the chemical display on the terminal before her and smiles up at Candy. “Thank you, Cy-Candy. You know I can’t ever repay you for her. Tabi’s having a little trouble getting used to her kindercomp, but she was so excited to get it implanted – her first ‘big girl’ implant.” She shakes her head slightly. “But what have you given me, C? This…” Dr. Vano shakes her head, her long blond hair fighting against the bun she put it in. “I’m not an epidemiologist, but the Red Plague out at Cargotown – it’s been the talk of the halls here. And now people outside the Zone are being reported sick. We have two cases in the hospital right now, and I don’t know how long they’ll last.”

Mei finds herself standing in front of a table. Across the table, Candyman stands, with Wolfir and deBois on either side. He speaks, but the words are muffled, as if he’s speaking underwater. Still, she gets the feeling that this is somewhere she’s supposed to be. She looks around the room and recognizes it as Candyman’s lounge in Cabrini-Grean, where she first met the Father. Father…Father.

“Yes, Father, I do solemnley take these vows.”

Dateline: September 19, 2050, continuing directly from last session.

The Edgerunners stand in a dilapidated convenience store, positioned in a semicircle around an open door. The smell of death and decay permeates the air, and the sound of two objects repeatedly slamming into each other, faster and faster, harder and harder, can be heard from the open doorway, the sound echoing up the staircase from the basement below. And then it stops, and there is silence.

Wormwood draws both silenced pistols and makes ready to move down the stairs as quietly as possible, his augmented eyes set to pick up heat, and his ears to isolate and clarify even the tiniest sound. Wormwood’s keen electronically-enhanced sense of hearing picks apart the noise, splitting it into its component parts. A pictorial representation of the sound – the standard ‘double-wave’ graphic everyone is so used to seeing – appears upon his HUD, key sections highlighted as software built into his cyberears processes, separates, and identifies the sounds. The software IDs the sound as a metallic object striking a softer object, possibly canvas or a plastic. A rough estimation of the energy required to generate the sound appears – well over 5,000 joules, equivalent to a gunshot form a powerful rifle. Wormwood mentally commands his computer implant to send the sound data to the others.

Top Stories

The sound of explosions and gunfire shocked the residents of Frankling Ridge awake early this morning as a gunbattle raged on the front steps of the local Amon Zero Archive. The Head Archivist of the chapter assures The Edge that the only relationship to the cult was proximity, saying ‘it was two organized groups of thugs shooting at each other’, and that one of the groups ‘had military-type weapons’, but were outnumbered and overrun. The winners of the battle seemed to be using improvised weapons and started off the underdogs, but the tide turned after a remotely-operated truck drove into the opposition and detonated. It is unclear how many people died in the battle, but the count is already over a dozen. No motive for the clash has yet been determined, and the two parties remain unidentified.

Night City Health Watch monitors have detected a dramatic rise in pathogen activity near the Cargotown Combat Zone over the past week. The pathogen was identified as an influenza variant, and reports from the Combat Zone suggest that sufferers can expect to run a very high fever, suffer a cough, and have muscle aches throughout most of the body. Extremely long periods of sleep are to be expected, and some sufferers have appeared to fall into a coma-like state. So far, morbidity can not accurately be estimated, but it is expected to lie within the 10-15% range. Night City Health Watch doctors are working on a treatment or vaccination regimine now in case the pathogen jumps the Combat Zone barrier, but for now the Night City Police have stepped up enforcement of the quarantine zone surrounding Cargotown.

An update on the Dreampark fire two months back: the daughter of a mid-level DreamCorp security manager, Frederico Berculli, has been identified as the young woman found tied up in the Dreampark Hotel after the fire. Police are still searching for the man who abducted her and left her to die in the fire; he is currently reported to be a primary suspect in the arson investigation as well. Night City Police have refused to comment on any leads they may have in the case.

Entertainment News

Following the unfortunate incident on the season finale of the latest version of the Edgerunners vid show, DreamCorp is reportedly searching for a new Edgerunner team to highlight and follow for the next six months. No details yet on who may be in the running, but knowing DreamCorp, they’re going to find the most colorful cast of characters they can. Maybe this one will evade the fate of so many that have gone before it; you know we’ll be rooting for you here at The Edge!

Umbra Corporation has announced their intention to sponsor a team of athletes competing at the 2052 Olympic Games, finally joining the field once again after their tragic loss in 2040. After their AthletePlus+ proved unsuccesful, Umbra renounced joining in the games until they had formulated a new ‘killer app’. Umbra stock jumped thirty points at the news, though of course no information has been made available as to what their new bioenhancements are likely to be or who they have chosen for their team.

Weather

Residents living on the south side of Night City or the outskirts near the border of SoCal are advised to stay indoors as much as they can for the next week. A radiation bloom has been detected originating from the Diablo Canyon Exclusion Zone in SoCal; moderate levels of fallout are expected to fall to the Earth on the south side during the next week’s rains. Radiation levels are expected to rise to a Condition Green; get your filter masks on before leaving the house and avoid drinking any rainwater and you should be fine.

Mei’s heart was racing. She was in a run down store in Vine Hill. The thrumming of bass sounds could be heard from Dangerous Seasons, just further down the alley. She, along with three men, were in the back room – where the less than legal wares were kept.

One man was the stores owner. He was searching through a cabinet, looking for a box of poisons Mei was purchasing to replenish her supply. He was a homely old man, his hair and beard more gray than the black it used to be. He didn’t seem interested in how his product was being used – only genuinely happy to have a supply of income.

The other two were Wo Shing Wo.