As Old Soul picked himself up, Mr. Johnson made a point of addressing the others, mostly managing to maintain an air of professionalism. If he had something to say about the mage's stunt, he didn't.

"Excellent. I shall be leaving in a moment to let you converse among yourselves or leave, whatever you need, although I suggest you do not all leave at once. But first—"

The human made a final round of the table, placing a chip and a DocWagon bracelet in front of each runner. Finally, he placed a credstick next to the white noise generator.

"Included in the files on the datachips before you is the address of a safehouse, courtesy of my employers. I suggest you meet there tomorrow and use it as a hub for your work. Although its location and access points are strategically advantageous, I advise that you take standard precautions. I should think the ten thousand nuyen on the table will be of help to you.

"As I mentioned earlier, you will be on your own once you leave here. The commcode enclosed is the one to which you will be placing a call once your objectives have been completed. Someone other than I will take care of matters—my work begins and ends with briefing you."

Johnson began to make his way towards the door. His hand hovering by the touch pad, he turned, his features softening: "Koch-Huang are familiar with most of the established runner teams. I suspect they won't be expecting one put together for the occasion. I suggest you take some time to get to know each other; there may be overlaps in your skills that'll be to your advantage. Your task isn't easy, but I trust my employers have chosen the right people. I wish all of you the best of luck."

He tapped the touch pad once. The door opened, the melodic noise amplifying hundred fold. Without looking back he stepped out, black shirt quickly disappearing in the crowd.

[center]★[/center]

Red tried to keep an eye on Mr. Johnson on the security cameras, but ended up shutting down the feeds with a sigh. "Yeah, he's gone."

"Okay," she continued while fingering the matte black datachip she'd been handed, "I'm gonna be the stuck up bitch from the get-go. Before you show up at the safehouse tomorrow, I' want you to go wherever you go to pick up burner 'links and get a new one. Just a cheap one like you usually do. Keep it in public mode and use that for your everyday needs. I don't want anyone getting picked up by Knight Errant for running restricted software."

She reached to the small of her back where her commlink was secured and slotted the datachip. Images, video clips and information, lots of information, appeared in her consciousness. She closed her eyes and smirked. [i]That's the stuff[/i]. The mage might be a total dreakhead, and the rigger had a serious hard-on for that drone, but the data was pure. God [i]damn[/i] was it pure. She mentally accessed the part about the safehouse, mapsoft information running through the fiberoptic cable into her cerebral cortex. As long as everything stayed connected, she'd know exactly where the safehouse was.

"Right, the safehouse is in Auburn, not too far from the Algona Hospital. Shouldn't be too hard to find. I hope everyone knows how to get there, preferably without falling on their asses?"