Now we had to find a way out and somewhere to take this stolen van and our hostage. I recalled some of the details of how I extracted Blitz and Spark when I first got them out of this city - the way we met. I was using the GPS to help. It was a slow process, full of paranoia, with Blitz following me in the stolen van. He kept bugging me over the communications, asking where we were going. At a traffic circle I got separated from the other two. I caught sight of Blitz as he veered off in a different direction. After that they seemed to have swapped seats, putting Spark in the driver's seat. I sent them my GPS coordinates.
I headed for the side of the city opposite of the airport, where far fewer vehicles leave the city. There was a small DIY rest stop out in the sticks. Blitz and Spark showed up, and Blitz swept the stolen vehicle for devices (tracking, homing, bombs, etc.) while I hopped up on the roof of our rented van. Spark filled a canteen with her piss, and then she showered our captive with its contents to wake him up.
"Ugh, what the frag?! Where am I?" our captive shouted as he came around. He went for his gun but Spark had it. "You looking for this?" she asked with some sass. In a calmer voice and with his Ukrainian accent more discernable, he replied: "You guys think you're pretty smart, pretty slick."
Spark: "Why you follow us?" Him: "I work security. Part of the job."
Spark: "Who is the employer?" Him: "It doesn't matter."
Spark: "Where did you follow us from?" He pauses but doesn't answer. Spark piled on with some threats, including suggesting she might take some of his fingers off. Him: "When you left the school. That's when I started following you."
Spark: "Who are you working for?" He provided the name of a small independent firm in the city: Kamin Security. I wanted to know the name of the company.
We \zip tied him and threw him in the back of the rented van. We scuttled the stolen vehicle in the woods and headed back to the city. He tried to suggest we let him go way out here and he'd walk back, and that he wouldn't say anything to anyone. No dice, chummer.
Back at the motel, Blitz stunned him and we carried our 'drunk friend' through the lobby to our room. I put him in the bathtub and closed the door. Long day, time to hit the sack.
The next day I found an unobtrusive place to park near the Buddhist temple where I could see the other two as they went in to find the monk Spark had already spoken to. They track him down. The convinced him to get us a superior monk to talk to. They set up a meeting with some representatives of the temple. Meanwhile, Blitz uses the temple's Matrix access to search for the teachers from the list he found, still in the system but not actually working on campus. His search resulted in one hit: Albina Kalyznyk. She works in the Recruitment Department. The search showed that she works now in the city as a consultant in the private sector. Put a pin in that.
They called me for a lift, as they were leaving. I told them, in order to disrupt surveillance I'd meet them inside a nearby three-story parking garage. No drones or guys with mag-vision cyber eyes would be able to see us meet up. Next we were headed to Albina's office.
It's a tall modern glass building, corporate but modest. The name on the side: Zaporizhia Automobile.
It's the same tactic: the other two go in and I sit behind the wheel. Here's how it went down....
A central hub of a front desk. Albina's not in, sorry. Spark and Blitz would have to head up to the floor she works on, in order to make an appointment. Which they do NOT do. Soon they returned to the vehicle. No luck yet.
The monks made contact so we headed to their preferred location, a wide open public park. We met at the benches by the pond. Two men were already there, and it's obvious they're who we were looking for. Shaved heads covered by their hats. I watched the exchange from the car. Here's what happened....
