Week Four

Monday May 8th, 2043

On this morning, Derek, Drake, BUG, and Alex were all contacted by Gipetto via their G3Ks (using a "conference call" type setup) and asked to meet outside the Torch Club. When the team arrived there, they found Gipetto standing outside, apparently somewhat taken aback by the fact that the club was closed at this time of the morning. Once everyone had assembled (except for the strangely absent Rook), Gipetto told the PCs that he required the right eye and right index finger of a man named Chad Ferguson, currently living in #721 of the Lewiston Apartments in Seattle. The team suggested the group move to a less crowded place to meet...after a quick motorcycle ride (which Gipetto loved!) to a nearby alleyway, the team asked some questions about this job.

At first Gipetto was not concerned whether the man lived or died, but when it was pointed out that he would most likely die from such injuries anyway, he nonchalantly added that Mr. Ferguson could be killed for convenience's sake. When asked if he knew where Rook was, he somewhat sheepishly denied knowing anything about where Rook might be, and changed the topic back to the current "troubleshoot".

The PCs decided to case the apartment building before attempting to enter. The Lewiston Apartments had a single guard at a desk in the lobby, was about 13 stories high, and had an iron fire escape connected to the back of the building. Most of the people who came and went from the apartments were obvious C-2's, middle class korps and teks. The only one who stood out was a very tall black man, with a red tattoo on his bald head, dressed in some kind of animal fur robe or coat. He left the building through the front door and disappeared up the street.

It was decided that Alex would rig three explosives, at various points of the city near the Lewiston Apartments, and detonate them one at a time as a cover for the team's entrance into the building. Using this as cover, the group made it onto the roof, down the stairs, and down to the seventh floor.

Apartment #721 was a disaster. All the furniture had been knocked over and broken; it was obvious that a great struggle had occurred here (it seemed strange that no one had heard anything and called the police). The walls were covered with long three-taloned claw marks and scorch marks. All the mirrors in the apartment, except for the one in the bathroom, had been somehow blackened over- one could still see one's reflection in them, but it was distorted, hazy.

Alex kicked open one of the doors into a separate room- it contained a small solid cage, from which emerged a monkey. Alex opened fire on the creature and killed it quickly. Also in that room were a number of books and a makeshift "altar" with a painting over it. The table had a red and black covering (which was also badly scorched); the painting was of a country crossroads, with tall coconut and palm trees and bright blue skies. The team also found a small wooden statuette of an old man, bent with age and cane in hand.

In the second room, the PCs found Chad Ferguson's body. His fingers were still all intact, but both of his eyes had been plucked out of their sockets. There wasn't a single other mark on his body, despite the evidence of a fight in the room. They took his right index finger and put it into BUG's arm cavity with some ice to keep it fresh. Ferguson was wearing a round black rock on a leather thong around his neck. The party took this, as well as his badly damaged computer hard drive. They also used the G3Ks to take video recordings of the scene, for later study. With their first mission as close to completed as it was likely to get, they left the building and slipped back to the Torch Club to meet Gipetto (when they called him on vidphone, he was riding a new motorcycle).

At the club, the PCs attempted to explain what had happened. Jennifer then asked why Gipetto couldn't just clone one of Ferguson's eyes. He answered that "That kind of thing attracts a lot of attention" and dropped the subject.