His Own Petard (Session 13)
Shadowhawk dug into the server and it was another couple of days before anything came up. Eventually he was able to find out that Michael had been working for Ghostwalker. Whether Michael was an outright employee or just a subcontractor, it was hard to tell from their correspondence, but confirmation that Michael - still not confirmed to be dead - was working with the recently-revealed third party now on the hunt for the AI made a headache for everyone.
Meanwhile, some of the packet sniffers that the team had set up over a month prior - seemed like years at this point - turned up the barest of hits on Digi-Walt (for lack of a better name), tracing to a federal prison on the outskirts of town. Discussions were had on potential ways to get it, ranging from Dave getting a new security job to Dave getting arrested (somehow it always fell to Dave), but no serious planning had yet begun.
The next day, Burnout and Whisper once again returned to the cavern, this time with one more modification to the Tsunderine - a small, waterproof capsule on the bow in which a single Fly-Spy drone could take shelter. On the way down, they noticed that the train car was missing - it'd previously been outside of the caved-in bunker. As for the bunker itself, the hallway leading to it was now cleared of rubble. They cautiously continued down to the waterfront, where they found no car, but the platform had collapsed, and a large pile of rubble sat across the tracks from it. The activity all looked to Whisper like it was a couple days old, but they kept a watchful eye as Burnout once again sent the Tsunderine upstream.
Before even launching the drone from the sub, they immediately noticed something new in the smaller cavern - a waterproof pod sat next to a communications array, powering it. Launching the drone, Burnout took a closer look. The text was in Spanish; the parts sourced from a company based in the Yucatan Peninsula. Aztechnology, almost certainly. A further look (after beaching the sub so he could give his full attention to the drone) revealed nothing but a naturally eroded hole in the ceiling leading to another cavern system. Burnout returned the drone to the sub, carefully unbeached it (telling Whisper that a reverse mode for the motor should be the next modification), and brought it back, then went back up the subway system in search of the car.
On the way, they got a call from Dave. "Hey guys. You know the prison we've tracked Digi-Walt to?"
"Yeah?" said Whisper.
"I checked the inmate list. And there's a block full of smart psychology types. Others too. The types you'd want together for research into anything even remotely close to this."
"Great," said Burnout. "What's the good news?"
"At least half of them are human pieces of shit that experimented on metahumans."
"Greeeat," said Whisper, visually not taking offense. Every metatype had their own sacks of crap. "Let us know if you find anything else."
They found the car at the first station, where they'd first encountered Michael's "gang" two months prior. It was burned out and mostly demolished, having just been preserved enough to be a self-powered cart on wheels. Burnout took another drone up to the next level to see if anyone was there.
There was someone, but she likely had nothing to do with the car. She was spray painting something on the wall.
Whisper leaned in closer over to take a look at the video screen. In the intervening two months, benches had been smashed, the fountain damaged, and graffiti covered most of the flat surfaces. "WE ARE WE" messages had an alarming percentage of real estate.
"Is that Sophie? ... and is she writing We Are We stuff?"
Burnout peered closer. Sure enough, she was quoting a passage from one of his Manifestos. He shook his head; he'd known that We Are We was out in the wild and had taken on a life of its own; had counted on it, in fact, for it to be an effective diversion from the team's activities. But it was still disturbing to see in real life; the grotesque mixture of pride and dread filled his heart as he watched.
"Well," he said after a moment, "Do we talk to her?"
They had last seen Sofie over a month ago, when she stole the wallets of many of the patents at Catherine's clinic, blew it all on Bliss, and OD'd. Burnout insisted on getting her help; they found another clinic (or was it a full-on hospital) and got her admitted. Burnout wrote her a note - he wish he'd remembered what it said, but it was something along the lines of, "I saved you. Don't screw up again because I might not be there for you. Turn your life around."
From the drone footage, Whisper guessed that she didn't look high, but still wanted nothing to do with her. Eventually, Burnout decided to sneak up the stairs while Whisper watched from the shadows.
"Hell of a taste in role models," said Burnout casually from near the bathrooms.
Sofie's head whipped around and a grin lit up her face. "Burnout!" She ran up and tackled him into a hug. "Oh my God, it's so great to see you!"
This was probably one of the last things he'd been expecting. After the shock passed, he returned the hug. "It's good to see you too! You're looking well." He meant it; her face was full of natural color and her eyes seemed healthy. Whisper confirmed quietly over comms that there were no apparent signs that she'd been using recently.
Sofie told Burnout about We Are We, and he encouraged her to go on. She quoted some of the Manifesto material. It was apparent that, recovering from Bliss, she'd instead latched onto the political movement. Burnout was mostly sure that it was an improvement.
After going on for some time, Sofie's eyes unfocused and she bit her lip. Then, she nodded, and said, "I trust you. We've got a meeting in about an hour, I'd like you to come."
"Sure." She started ahead. Burnout, conscious that Whisper would be left behind without a ride, dropped his keys softly for him.
"Rooftops," he then heard over comms, from the parkour specialist. Sofie turned around to see him blushing and picking up his keys from the ground, then following her.
She led him through various streets and alleys before finally arriving at an alley door. She knocked a secret knock, said, "He's with me," and entered. The irony of Burnout, the original writer and creator of the We Are We manifestos, needed to be vetted to gain entry, was not lost on him.
Inside the room were about half a dozen people. Sofie had made it clear on the way that this was the leadership group of the organization; there were other groups - cells, to be charitable - but they took directives from this one. And this group contained Sofie, a couple of people that Burnout recognized as patients from Cath's clinic (apparently Sofie had returned, apologized, and evangelized)... and Lofwyr.
Silver-haired, golden-eyed, Lofwyr. Head of Saeder-Krupp. Great Western Dragon. Personification of one of at least two antagonists in the entire Digi-Walt saga.
Assuming leadership position of We Are We.
And, perhaps most terrifying, Lofwyr seemed to recognize Burnout as well.
They both played it quite cool. Burnout bullshitted about admiring the ideals that We Are We had come up with, while Lofwyr bullshitted about thanking Burnout for helping Sofie and how great a help she is. And poor Sofie stood beside them with no idea.
The meeting lasted for an hour and a half. Early on, Burnout got a text from Whisper, stating simply, "Had to go get bread from the store." Burnout played it off and put it back away turning his attention back to the drafting of another Manifesto. Lofwyr tried to involve dragons, casting them in both positive and negative lights (and one in the know could see which dragon was which); Burnout played up his innocence and meely suggested that dragons weren't good iconography for the "We" side of the equation. Sofie backed him, and her influence being apparently quite heavy they got it struck from it, while simultaneously adding something about "The imprisonment of the soul" - something to work in once the prison job went down.
There was also talk of the next job - a mostly written Manifesto (ending We Are Here instead; Burnout argued for it still ending with We Are We to keep the idea decentralized) and a plan to knock out power to the city center again. He argued to knocking out power to the prison, as it'd go with the other one, but the group seemed to settle on two plans - first the city center with a Manifesto of growing influence, then the Imprisonment Manifesto with the prison job.
After the meeting, Burnout exchanged contact information with Sofie and called Whisper.
"You need to come here."
"Copy that."
Burnout retrieved his car and drove over to Whisper's apartment. The runner was waiting outside. "I ran into an old friend."
"Great. I ran into an old friend of yours too. And I need a drink."
The two of them went back to Burnout's place. The AI thinktank had mostly turned in for the night; Whisper and Burnout were alone in the garage.
Whisper went first. "An old contact of mine from way back contacted me about picking up a contract he'd started. He really needs Armand Hammer the... sixth?... kidnapped. He hasn't told me why, but I don't think it's just for the money - which is 200,000 nuyen in total. He's the only one of his team that made it out, and he's in rough shape."
Burnout hemmed and hawwed. "I don't know, man. The only reason I was okay with the last job like that was because it turned into a reverse of that job when someone else had done that job already."
"Yeah, I know. I need to find out why he's so intent on it. There's a week left to do it."
"Well, I'd vote against it. But if you're going to do it, I've got your back."
"Thanks." It struck Burnout how it seemed like the two of them had known each other for years, when it'd only been a couple months. Old friends. Being hunted by dragons and the like tended to distort one's sense of time.
Oh yeah. Speaking of which. "My turn. With one of your old friends."
"Which one?"
"Lofwyr." He let that hang for a moment. "Who apparently is now the head of We Are We."
Whisper sputtered, looked at his drink, and downed it. Burnout did the same. He contemplated that with Lofwyr in charge, the movement might be more focused and less of a generalized terror organization... but it was wishful thinking. They each grabbed another drink, and again downed it. They sat in silence for a few moments.
"I have meddled in the affairs of dragons," said Burnout, almost to himself.
"Fucking dragons, man," said Whisper softly.
