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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Mar 29, 2012 22:57:44 GMT -5
Forummers note: please do not post any comments or discussions here in this thread. Please use this thread for all out-of-story discussions.Preface: Do not read this thread from beginning to end! This thread is an interactive, multi-ending story written in the style of the Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) paperbacks written during the 1980s and early 1990s featuring the reader taking on the roll of the main character. As you read, your story will unfold and, periodically, you will be called upon to make a choice, which will tell you which page (post number) to turn to so that you can find out what happens because of your choice. The consequences of your actions can range from glorious success to utter disaster! Some of the endings of this story will lead into the game(s) that have been played before on this forum. Anybody who wishes to control/write any particular NPC character for this thread should message/skype/post in the discussion thread, and any player who wishes their PC to make a cameo (or larger than cameo) appearance should also indicate so. A little background: This story takes place some time after the Mirror's Edge comic, but before the iPad app side-scrolling game. Your arm has healed after your adventure inside of Silvine Security Systems (yes, you're Faith!), and you are once again in action doing runs for Mercury. In this game, it is assumed that you have had something of an informal education in a range of subjects, including basic physics, anatomy and kinesiology (at least your anatomy), and computer use. This explains your ease when you will hack into the Pirandello Kreuger mainframe in an adventure later in your life to find out the truth about Project Icarus - assuming, that is, that you live long enough to make it that far, as death is lurking around every corner, and sometimes hiding in plain sight. So enjoy your adventure - you know you will - and good luck. You'll need every bit of it.
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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Mar 30, 2012 0:05:04 GMT -5
1It's been quiet for the past month and a half - you've been doing runs once every other day or so, and training and sleeping in the rest of your time. You have long since you've paid off your debts to Leaf and Drake for sheltering your father, and they seem to respect you for it anyway. The fact is, you may have saved not only your family, but the Runners as well, by feeding Silvine those useless incomplete notes. Still, you don't allow yourself to become too relaxed or complacent. Runners who let that happen to them don't come home. The bag that you picked up earlier in the day from a now-condemned housing development not unlike the one you grew up in is barely heavy enough for you to feel it as you hurdle the roof fences and slide down a hot cable on your electrically-insulated glove. Your destination is an office at King Minos University on the north side of the City, inland of the Shard and the main commercial sector of the shining wave that has overtaken what was once your home. You're not sure what it's for, but as Merc says, neither the Runners nor their trackers ask questions. You actually wonder if this is wise: the Runners operate to provide the people who wished to keep their freedom and privacy an option by which to live their lives without the City spying on them, and it is not good when your client turns out to be someone who is trying to build a new security camera that will prevent even Runners from operating safely - as Drake unwittingly did. With your heart pounding after nearly eleven miles of nonstop running, you pause the edge of the rooftop overlooking the University's main plaza. You remember this place: not only is it where your parents got their graduate degrees, but they took you and Kate here as children as well - only then there were real trees growing in real dirt in the gardens lining the main quad, and not the white plastic mockeries sitting on ceramic tiles in the sea of concrete that even the University plaza has become. "What are you thinking, Faith?" rattles Merc's voice over your comlink as you survey another lost childhood dream. You don't say anything, but Merc guesses it. "Looks like even the ivory tower of King Minos hasn't been able to resist the City's resurfacing job. Keep going, Faith - you're almost there." You are only half paying attention to that last bit, as you take a step back from the edge of the rooftop on which you are standing; you saw something, a flicker of movement out of the corner of your eye. You still aren't sure what you saw, but it looked like a person, on a rooftop about three buildings back. It could have been just janitorial staff, maybe just a bird, but the way it moved, or the way you imagined it moving almost made you think it could have been another Runner. Whatever it was you don't see it now, although that may be only because there are several blocks of ventilation and cooling towers currently between you and where it would be. You head off to continue your run. Between your age and the way that you're dressed, a casual observer from a distance might imagine you were an ordinary college student. After sliding down a drain pipe to the street and relaxing to an easy jog toward your destined building, your jumpiness gets the better of you, and you ask Merc quietly "Merc, do you know if there are any other Runners in the area?" you ask. Merc's typing on his computer rattles your ears. "Nope, kiddo, you should be alone. School's not in session, so the only person you're likely to run into is a stray college student over break," he replies. "I thought I saw something moving on a building behind me," you say. You hear Merc's bemused grunt. This isn't the first time you've been alerted to the presence of a construction worker or just some joe enjoying the sights. Then, suddenly, you hear his mouse clicking intensify. "Wait, there is someone, on a roof you were on just a minute ago, I spotted him on a security cam. He's white, shaven head, dressed like a street thug, dark red tee and baggy gray pants. I see you, too, by the way - the building to your right's the one you want, with the sign saying 'Note'. Window on the second floor - should be some actual plants at the window" Quickly identifying the building in question, you glance behind you, and pick out a shadow dangling off of the side of a roof you were just on. You've no doubts now - you are being tracked, and by more than just Merc, but you have no idea for how far. Fortunately, whoever is following you evidently is not as skilled at running as you are, and right now, you don't have line of sight to him, which means that he can't see you, at least not directly, giving you a second to consider your options. If you decide to continue your run as planned and deliver the bag, and either outrun the person tracking you or deal with him when he reaches you, turn to page 2. If you decide to take evasive action and mislead the person following you before meeting your contact, turn to page 3. If you decide to wait in hiding for your pursuer and confront him when you have the element of surprise, turn to page 4. If you sneak into a hidden place and take a look into your bag to see what you might be carrying that is important, turn to page 5.
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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Mar 30, 2012 12:56:02 GMT -5
2Whoever it is that is following you clearly is not as good a runner as you; you cleanly made that jump from the last building effortlessly, and he's evidently just not as athletic. Still, you would rather him not be able to follow you to the drop off point, so you sprint down a causeway between two buildings unrelated to your destination, and loop around one of them before returning to your intended destination. "I see you opted to take some evasive action anyway," Merc comments. As you run back into the view of the building you were headed for, this Note Hall, you see that your pursuer is already there, standing on the pavement, looking at you. "I see him, he's on a security cam. He obviously knows where you were headed. I'm looking into any police files to see if I can identify him." There is nothing more that you can do to dupe him, obviously, since he knew where you were going all along. Loosening your muscles, you approach, hoping that Leaf's training will hold you well in case you need it. Stopping at about twenty feet, you give each-other a firm look-over. He looks like he's about your age, wearing, as Merc described, a dark red t-shirt, and gray, torn jeans, with a bulging pocket on the right side - you're guessing a hidden weapon, although not the easiest place to access. His appropriate hand is on his side next to the pocket, but he's making no move for it at the moment. His face has a sullen expression, with a hole in his lip where he probably had a piece of jewelry that had been ripped out. The CPF have done that to street thugs ever since their inception, shortly after November. But you can tell that he is not a typical street thug - being outside all day would leave him with many a bad sunburn if he weren't wearing protection as you are. He wants to look like a gangster. "You're no gangster," you say flatly. "You are a Runner," he returns. Of course, if he's been following you for who knows how long, there's no way he couldn't have figured that out by now. Seconds pass as you glare at each-other. Neither makes any sudden movements, but you want him to go away so that you can complete your run, although if he knows you're headed to Note Hall, then he probably knows who your target recipient is. "So, what are you going to do, then?" Before he responds, the door of the building opens, and out walks a woman wearing a heavy sweatshirt with her hood up. She looks like she's maybe your age or a little over from what you can see of her face, but she's making sure to keep her features covered. Perhaps she's hoping that the City's surveillance teams won't be able to identify her. "You, I don't know what you're here for, but go away," she tells the false gangster. "Come in with me," she then says as she turns to you, making eye contact and noting your bag. " Get lost!" she hisses back at the mystery pursuer after he doesn't do anything. She reaches into her sweatshirt, and he backs off and trying to be nonchalant, begins walking away, but as he turns you notice that he has some kind of object, probably a com link, in his ear. "Come on in," says the woman, as she heads back to the building, and holds the door for you. Cautiously, you follow her in, and then up a winding series of passageways inside. You get the feeling at first that she's trying to get you lost, so you pay special attention to where you are going, but then you realize that her subterfuge is really something else: she's evading the security cameras inside of the building. The walls are decorated with various posters, from what you can tell showing the diagrams of proteins and other molecules. Finally, she leads you into a door marked "fire escape", which leads to a stairwell and up onto the second floor. The walls on the second floor are marked with stranger charts, but then you walk by a glass display case of rocks and, interestingly, sea shells, or rather sea shells that look like rocks - which you suddenly realize is because they are fossils. Finally, you arrive at a hallway where she ducks into and looks down before moving back behind the wall. Then she hisses "Now!" and sprints toward a door marked 'Dr. Elanor Normal'. As you run, you see what the woman was dodging: a roving security cam down the end of the hall. Just as you reach the door, it opens, revealing an aging man in a plaid shirt and pants with curly, once-red but now graying hair and an unkempt beard. The woman enters, and the man beckons you in. "Great, Sally!" the man says. The woman, once inside, removes her hood and her sweatshirt to reveal an athletic young figure with medium-length blonde hair. Now that you see more of her, you can tell that she's maybe a few years older than you. As you glance around the room, you see stacks and stacks of books and journals, the most prominent names being Ecology and Evolution. On the mantlepiece below the window, however, you spot something you so rarely get to see: a palm-like plant, an actual plant, growing in a pot, as well as one of those spiky aloes, and various cacti growing around the room. In a corner is a small tree, in a larger pot, with sharp, blade-like needles. The realization comes to you in a flash: this is the office where you were meant to deliver the package!The aging man looks you up and down. "Hi, I'm Dr. Normal's husband. This is Sally, our student. I'm very glad you made it," he says. "Sorry - you just remind me of someone," he then adds solemnly. "Looks like you're in the place," Merc says suddenly, breaking his radio silence, apparently assuming it's now safe to assume that the people here know you've got a tracker. Nodding, you unsling your bag and set it on the table. The old man looks into it, and pulls out its contents: photographs of trees, from what you can tell, and then some data cartridges and disks, and then, finally, a sealed plastic bag containing a sprig of a tree with needles, and many tiny beads that look like glass. The professor and student's eyes light up as they admire the contents of the sealed bag. "Samples from China!" he says in a soft, but excited, tone. The professor then reaches onto his desk and pulls out a small book, like a pamphlet, and hands it to you. "Here, this is for you. Take it with you - we'll ask you to run it soon, but make sure you look inside first," he says. Glancing at the window, he adds "You can escape out the window here. There's a ledge below it and a couple of windows to the side that you probably can mantle up, but you'll have to be quick: there's a rotating security camera, and this will all be for naught if the Dean finds out we hired a Runner. See if your tracker can help you time it," he says. "I'm looking through that camera now, just trying to find an escape route for you," Merc's voice rattles again through your com link. "You'll have about a thirty-second window," he says. Your eyes roll at the pun. At least he's stopped making puns on your name. "Tell the prof to open the window about... now!" You give the signal, the professor opens the window, and you climb out, jump to the window of the next office, then climb up it, and up to the next window on the floor above, and then to the roof, before dropping flat on the indentation of the roof. "You did it, kiddo - security cam didn't see you," Merc says. "Bad news, though, is that our rooftop gangbanger is back. He did watch you climb out of that window. Wait a few seconds before you're out of the camera's view, then head for Leaf's place in the north side. She's said you can spend the night there. Hopefully your gangster fanboy won't have the guts to follow you there." Flattening your body against the roof, you lie there for a few seconds, breathing heavily. This is already the most adventure you've had in months. After a moment, you get up and run to the other side of the building and slide down to street level again using a drainage pipe - nice of the University to provide those for you at least. Then you sprint. "What was that thing that he gave you?" you hear Merc ask. "I don't know - looked like some kind of pamphlet," you answer as you run. "Is our friend still following me?" Merc is silent for a minute or so, then he answers "Yep, I see him. He's headed your direction, but at this rate there's no way he's going to catch you. Worst thing he's likely to do is get himself caught by the CPF, and then tell them about us." A few more minutes go by as you get deeper into the city, and start climbing up to find the best way from this side to Leaf's present hideaway. "I think I've found out who he is, by the way. If I'm right, he went by the name of Crag. His career as a street thief could have ended like yours did, except unlike you he didn't have any talent for running. So he went back to thieving, 'cause we didn't want him to get himself killed falling off of something," Merc says as he explains the story and you climb up a plumbing fixture. "Well, whatever he's doing now, it isn't petty thievery," you say. "Someone had to tip him off that I was carrying something interesting," You then balance along a pipe that leads to an abandoned attic of a building. A faint flicker of light inside tells you that Leaf is home. "I'm there," you say. "Sure, just tell me what that prof gave you when you look at it, OK?" Merc says as you approach the entry. Movement stirs inside and you notice Leaf looking out at you. "Sure thing," you say. "Be back tomorrow, then," you add, as you shut off the com link. Turn to page 6
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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Mar 31, 2012 14:00:24 GMT -5
3"Merc, I'm going to lead this follower off and circle back," you say quickly, before he comes into view. You move up the street slightly, and then, noting when he comes into view, you take off toward another building, a short ways off of this Note Hall that you were initially heading for. A brief check behind you verifies that the mystery man, with you having made sure that he saw you, is indeed giving chase. "All right, all of the doors on the ground level are going to be locked," you hear Merc say. "And I'm looking at the plans. I don't think an air vent entry is going to be good for this one either," he says. "I'll see if there is a door on top of one of the buildings," you say, quickly selecting one - and making your choice based not only on how easily you think you can get up it, but also how easily you could get to neighboring rooftops, if this one turns out not to have an unlocked door on the top. It isn't hard for you to get up: these university buildings have lots of ledges and the windows have wide margins. All you really need to be is a good climber, although in your case it's not as easy as it might be, since you want to make sure that the distance between you and your pursuer is as large as you can manage, just in case he has a gun and tries to shoot you. You're already most of the way up the four-story building by the time that your pursuer actually gets to you, though - apparently sliding down that drain pipe wasn't as easy for him as it was for you. After looking around for several seconds while you make it to the top, he starts climbing as well. Watching him as you climb gives you the distinct impression that this guy, whoever he is, is actually not a Runner, even though he's trying to be as he chases you down. He's just not as good as you are. You look around on the roof, and spot the access door immediately, and then glance around as you trot over to open it. It is locked, but strangely, someone has left a key under one of the air vents that is surprisingly un-hidden, and you grab it and try it. Sure enough, it opens the door. Deliberately, you leave the key in the same place as you slip inside - if your pursuer is sharp enough to find it as well, then you want him to follow you inside and get lost. Hopefully, he doesn't have a tracker himself. Speaking of whom, Merc briefs you on the architecture as you get in the door. "All right," Merc says as you survey the fairly standard-looking stairwell leading down from the roof - its security cameras on lower levels. "There are cams up and down this stairwell, so get off on the top floor, and head down the hall. There are more cams in the hallway, but I'll direct you around them." Several blood-pumping minutes follow as you weave your way through what is obviously the anthropology department with its photographs of famous archeological landmarks, specimens of exotic clothing and other articles from around the world, before the world was turned into the corporate playground it has become. Sometimes, you wonder what would have happened even if Libertas had won in the City. Nonetheless, Merc's knowledge of where the cameras are and when they sweep is perfect - the only thing you're worried about now is what your pursuer might be doing, especially if he's being less careful and catches up to you. "Well, he's in the building," Merc says, validating your concern. "Should be some flag poles you can get down on outside of the window to your right," he then adds, "but wait for the camera at the end of the hall, until, about, now." You slip past the view of the roving camera, slide open the window, and see the flag poles, of several different countries. You drop from the window onto one flying the flag of the United States, then swing to the one for Russia, and then drop, landing in a 'garden' of plastic bushes on the ground again. "Get moving, Faith. Our friend is in full view of the cams, and chatter says some blues may be coming for him," Merc says. "Get to the drop point and get out before they show up!" Encountering blues is not something you want to do right now, so you sprint back to Note Hall. "Second floor, right?" you ask. "Any cams on it? They seem to be all over this campus," you say. Your unspoken desire is to make sure that your client isn't seen with a Runner. "Yep, one watching the window, but it's got about a thirty second revolution. Should give you some time if you come down by the roof," Merc answers. Having noted in your mind where Note Hall was from before, you climb up a drain pipe on the back side of it, and up to the roof. The top of the building has an indentation and raised outsides, which will make it easy to hide from cameras by lying flat on the roof. "Tell me when to take cover, Merc," you say. "Yeah, take cover now. Shit, blues are looking for you, too, Faith, saw you while you were on the ground. Give me a sec... OK, get going now." Taking Merc's comments, you get up, and scale down two windows to a ledge, which you angle along and then tap on a window with a palm-like plant growing in a pot on the windowsill of which - an actual plant, with green leaves and everything. Further inside, there are many cacti and other plants growing in various pots. Clearly, this is the place. A middle-aged man with an unkempt beard wearing a inside wearing a plaid shirt opens the window, and you hand him the bag. "Quickly, come inside," he whispers, pausing for a second as he studies your face. As he says this, you realize that there isn't enough time to get back to the roof before the camera comes around again - is that what he is referring to? You have a split second to decide what do do - you could probably just take the fall from here to the ground without injury, and that would be the quickest way down. But can he hide you from the police in there (does he even know they're coming, and if so how)? If you hide in the man's office to hide from the camera and, hopefully, the CPF, turn to page 7. If you drop to the street and make a run for it, turn to page 8.
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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Apr 2, 2012 18:18:01 GMT -5
4"Merc, I don't want him to know who our client is, so I'm going to lead him off and confront him," you say as you begin trotting down the street away from Note Hall. "Careful, Faith. You don't know if he's armed," you hear Merc say. Arriving at the edge of a patio you pause before sprinting across and into a more narrow walkway between two large buildings, one with a rather conspicuous dome on top - this must be the administration's building. Glancing behind you, you verify that your pursuer is still following you; he's between Note Hall and its sister building now as he runs, rather than sprints, toward the patio. You duck behind a large, concrete column on the cement porch of the admin building, and then glance around the the porch looking for a place where you will be free from security cams. Unfortunately, there isn't one right here, so you dart under the awning and behind a dumpster. "I've got cover behind this dumpster," you tell Merc of your situation. "Tell me which way he is coming," you add, knowing that with the huge number of security cameras that the university has all over the place, Merc is sure to be able to watch your pursuer's nearly every move. If there's one thing you can conclude about this pursuer, he's not nearly as good a Runner as you. You wait for the man to approach. He's not exactly quiet, and you almost don't even need Mercury telling you where he is. Correction: you don't need him at all, when the man throws open the lid of the dumpster with a loud clang, as if expecting you to be inside. You hear his voice cursing behind the dumpster. Then, you hear a faint, synthesized voice say something that you can't quite make out, but you realize instantly that it can only mean one thing - he's not working alone either. He has a tracker himself, or someone acting as one. Then, suddenly, Merc whispers "from left", as you hear the man's footsteps. You circle around the dumpster just as he comes around it, and you hear another hissed curse under his breath. "The bitch isn't here either," you manage to catch a hiss of the man's course, angry voice. This time, you hear his tracker's voice a little more clearly: you can tell that it's male, calm, even sounding refined, and exasperated at the "runner's" incompetence. Taking advantage of the moment as he argues with his tracker, you vault over the dumpster and land both of your feet into his chest as he twirls to face the sound of your leaping off of it. He goes down with a thud, smacking his head on the pavement, causing him to cry out in pain. You notice that his com link comes out of his ear as he lands, and rattles across the pavement. Acting quickly you pick it up and look at it for a split second - it's not one of Drake's. It looks more like the ones that the blues sometimes carry. You see the man on the ground start to get up and his hand reach for his pocket, in which you notice a significant bulge - likely a weapon. You retaliate with another swift kick to his chest and then a stomp on his hand, and are greeted with a sickening muffled crunch as bones in his hand break. He tries to cry out again, but thankfully is temporarily winded from the blow to his chest. After placing your foot on his hand next to his pocket and switching off the com link you swiped from him off, you demand "Now, who are you, who are you working for, and why are you chasing me?" He winces from the pain as he squirms. "Get off my arm, and I'll tell you," he says, half crying. Rather than let him up, you smear your foot on his injured arm, and he opens his mouth as if to scream, but doesn't. "Give me some reason to trust you, and I will," you say flatly. "Start with who you're working for, and don't tell me you're a Runner." "All right, all right," he gasps in pain. "I'm working for a guy named Clemens," he says. "Steve Clemens," he adds. "Don't know who he works for, but it's one of the big companies." "And why is he interested in me?" you insist. "He wants what you got in your bag," he answers. "Wants it not to go to any damn professor." A professor, you think - well, that makes sense, but why? "You still haven't told me why he cares. What's in my bag that's so important, and how does he know about it?" you demand. "Faith?" you hear Merc whisper in your ear, sounding somewhat agitated. You are going to need to break off this interrogation soon. "I don't know...", he whines, and then adds "Says some prof's trying to put together some kind of book or something, betraying the City. Look, I don't know this shit any more than you do. Look in your own damn bag for the drugs or what." "Fine," you say, and give the man a swift kick in the side of his head, knocking him unconscious, and then pull whatever he had out of his pocket - a semiautomatic, and not unlike what you've seen the CPF use, at that. "What's up, Merc? This guy had what looks like a CPF handgun," you add. "Yeah, speaking of whom, chatter's just gone wild. You gotta get out of there, blues from just about every agency in the City. Head east," Merc says. "What about the dropoff?" you ask, feeling the light weight of your bag. "Get goin', Faith! They're not in a talking mood!" Merc exclaims, as you begin to notice the sirens yourself. If you abandon your run to escape with your life, hoping to come back later, turn to page 9. If you decide that getting the bag to the client is worth the risk, turn to page 13.
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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Apr 4, 2012 0:26:54 GMT -5
5Deciding what to do, you sprint across the street and around the corner to the back side of Note Hall, pausing at the edge of the corner to make sure that your follower isn't able to see what you are about to do. Having made sure he's not following you, you scale up the raised bricks surrounding the windows, a drainage pipe, and a lighting fixture until you make it to the roof - again, making certain that you cannot see your pursuer. "Faith, once you get up there, get your head down. There's a rotating camera on the next building over - don't let it see you," Merc briefs you. Taking his advice, you flatten yourself against the roof, the edges of which are raised, which gives you enough cover that you can be sure that the camera won't be able to see you. "Am I still being followed?" you ask Merc. "Sort of - he's just now gotten down the building you were on before you got on top of Note - um, let's see. No, he's puzzling where you went, it looks like," Merc answers. You pause, figuring out how you are going to say this. "Merc, after our experiences with Silvine, I'd like to know what's in this bag. I know it's a client's secret and all, but I don't want to be helping another S.S.S." You hear Merc let out a breath, exasperated. "Well, you've got a reason to be suspicious, at least. But all I can tell you is that it's someone overseas trying to smuggle something to a university professor. Note Hall is the biology department, and the office is... Elanor Normal," he says after a pause. You're guessing he's doing internet searches on the spot. Biology? This is just getting weirder and weirder - is he trying to smuggle drugs or something? Or does this have to do with the landscaping and imposed cultural shift towards artificialness that manifested the shining whiteness of the New City? But then you look at the bag. This is a Runner bag, isn't it? "The bag belongs to us - so you can open it up to have a look, but don't touch anything inside!" you hear Merc say, in essence voicing your concerns. "You have plenty of time - our friend is just standing there looking around. I think he knows your destination is in Note somewhere, unfortunately," Merc adds. Squirming on the roof top to avoid getting up into the field of view of the revolving security camera, you open up the bag and look inside. Within, you see a number of data cartridges, photographs of what look like trees and birds in some forest, and a sealed plastic bag containing the twig of what looks like a tree, with curious needle-like leaves, and many, many, tiny balls of glass or plastic. "I don't get this," you say, making sure everything is secure. "Data cartridges, photos from a forest, and a bag of what looks like a funny kind of pine tree, or something, with little clear plastic balls, maybe glass," you say. "DNA samples," Merc says. "The glass balls are used to prepare things for DNA analysis." There is a pause. "We may be glad you looked into that, Faith - just don't open anything else. But we'll have to keep an eye on what this client is doing now," he says. "This is too strange. I think we may have just stumbled onto something very big..." A lot of what Merc is thinking went unspoken, but you're plenty smart enough yourself to pick it up. Nobody would bother hiring a Runner to transport DNA samples unless those samples were not only very important but also very heavily watched. Are these the makings for a new agricultural revolution? Some kind of bioweapon? Or is it something stranger still? "You're still going to have to get down to the office, somehow, Faith. I'm surprised I don't hear any chatter yet from blues. There should be a door on the roof, unless it's locked. If it is, hide behind it; the security cam can't see it, and we'll figure out what to do. You have thirty seconds, starting... now!" Not losing a second, you get up and dart over to the door. It is locked, but that hardly stops you: someone left the key in plain sight in an air vent next to the door, and you just pick it up and unlock it. "Good, you're in," Merc says. "I'll guide you to avoid the security cams inside of the building. Our friend is still waiting on the street below." Taking Merc's guidance carefully, you dodge the huge number of surveillance cameras in the halls of the building - you wonder why the university is so heavily laden with cameras. How many people do they have watching them? It's unmistakably the biology department: posters of structures of proteins, but there is one display of fossils on the second floor that piques your interest. The City's forsaking of nature was one of the things that Libertas was set against, and even though you've never had a chance, you still feel a connection whenever you see plants or real animals. Could it be in your blood? Perhaps one of the reasons you enjoy being a Runner is because you get to be so close to your own biology? In any event, you make it to the door marked 'Dr. Elanor Normal', and knock, glancing down the hall at the security cam shifting its view toward you. The door suddenly opens, and inside are two people, a middle-aged man in a plaid shirt and an unkempt red-gray beard, and a young, athletic blonde, perhaps a few years older than you. "Come in," he says. Glad to get out of sight, you comply, and he shuts the door behind you. Your tense your muscles, in case this is a trap and you need your martial arts skills. It turns out that you don't: "I'm Elanor's husband, from over in geology. This is our graduate student, Sally," he says. He studies you for a moment, but then sighs. All this does is pique your curiosity - and suspicion. Still, you unsling your bag, and set it onto a table, and the two eagerly open it up and look into it, while you get the chance to look around the room. The room is cluttered with shelves and shelves of books and journals, the most prominent names being Ecology and Evolution. But what hits you more is that there aren't just plants in the window - there is one, a cactus in a pot and a small, palm-like thing, but the entire room is full of aloes, cacti, and even a small, odd, pine-looking tree in the corner. While you glance around the room, the professor gets the plastic bag out of your runner bag and looks at the leaves within. "Specimens from China!" he hisses in excitement, unable to contain his joy. Sally is breathing deeply, obviously equally excited herself. The professor then looks at you. "You are a little late, by the way - was there a problem?" he asks with some concern. "Go ahead and tell him, Faith," you hear Merc say. "May get us some answers, too." "Yes," you reply. "Someone dressed like a street thug pretending to be a Runner was following me. I had too try to get away from him," you say. "So that's who that is," Sally says, glancing out the window. "He showed up five minutes ago and started loitering. I didn't call the CPF because we knew you were coming," she adds. "Looks like someone doesn't want overseas botany being done," the professor says, looking out toward the window. He pauses, and then picks up a pamphlet on his desk and hands it to you. "We'll need you to run this, too, in the near future," he tells you. "But feel free to read it - and there's something for you inside," he adds. "Read it"? you ask. "Ordinarily, the Runners don't ask questions of our clients, you know," you say, as if to reassure him, but at the same time covertly asking permission to ask more. The old professor only smiles. "Yes, read it. It will probably raise more questions than it will answer, though," he says, before looking toward the plants in the room. "How much do you know about how Libertas started?" he asks suddenly. "Not that much," you say, telling a half-truth. "I know who the people who started it are, and what they were striving against. Any Runner knows that much," you continue. "Ever hear of Vitalia?" the professor asks. You shake your head no. The real answer is yes - both your parents mentioned that they got some of the ideas from Vitalia in discussions while you and Kate were young, but you still hardly know anything more than the name. "I was friends with its founder, and Elanor and I came to the City while Vitalia was still running strong. I think I was the one who planted the free thought and free science bug in Abe Conoors when he took ecology from me when I was just starting here," answers the professor. Your eyes widen in surprise - he taught your father? "I was thinking you reminded me of Abe," he says, which hits you with another surprise. You wonder if he is thinking more than he is telling you, that he knows who you really are. "Somehow. Anyway, Vitalia was about humans, nature, and understanding each-other, scientifically, you understand. Nowadays I feel like the only part of it left is the freedom-fighting athletes that you Runners are." "Hey!" Sally interjects. "You're not really of this world, Sally," he replies. "Vitalia never quite died where you come from." The professor then holds up the bag with the leaves. "This is Metasequoia, dawn redwood. This made up the forests of the dinosaurs. The New City's regime doesn't want us studying this, because it harkens back to the old world, before people built their own 'world'. It's the same reason why they want the City to be shining and white, not green." You are suddenly reminded of an evidence file you swiped off of the desk of a SWAT officer in a funny office in the sewer back while Merc was still training you*. In fact, that was your last training mission, probably what convinced Merc you were finally ready - your next run was testing Drake's new com link, and that was the run you saved Kreeg from Austen Reynolds. The file in question featured what looked like a photograph of a city, from the inlets and whatnot you would have said this City, but everything was green, even the skyscrapers had trees on them. You assumed at the time that the picture was just an incredibly life-like rendering; it's amazing what computers can do these days. In fact, many of the trees in the picture were not unlike what the prof is holding up right now in the bag... "And, it may be that they should be worried, since this knowledge might even reverse the tide, if it all succeeds." Sally's eyes beam as the professor says these words, but you simply nod. You miss the trees, too, back when this City was alive - even though you can barely remember them, you were so young. "You had better get going," the professor suddenly tells you. "Sally, want to take this lady to the back entrance so the one watching us outside doesn't know we're here?" "Sure," Sally says. "I'm guessing you've got someone guiding you though since you got in here - this building is loaded with security cams, and I'm sure we'd be hearing sirens if they saw a tatooed Runner in here," she adds. It isn't more than a couple of minutes before you're both outside, with you holding the pamphlet, which you tuck in your back pants under your shirt. Sally thanks you, wishes you luck, and then goes back into the building. Without you, she doesn't have to worry about security cameras, but you have to wonder where she comes from. Her accent isn't that exotic, so if she's not from the City, then she must be American, maybe Canadian - but last you heard, free expression wasn't really that free even there anymore, either. "You still there, Merc," you ask. "Yeah," Merc says, almost panting. "Looking up dawn redwood for you. Faith, get to Leaf's place. She's said you can stay there for the night. But when you get back tomorrow, I want to talk to you about some thing," he says. "And good job, Faith. Well done!" Now that you're outside again and once more broadly indistinguishable from an ordinary college student, you head straight for Leaf's northtown hideout. You don't encounter any significant hazards, and despite your asking Merc to look back and see if you are still being pursued, he doesn't see it. Given how relatively inept a Runner he was compared to you, you're quite confident that if he were still following you, Merc would have seen him. *The evidence files in Mirror's Edge 2D Turn to page 6
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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Apr 4, 2012 19:36:59 GMT -5
6After having reached Leaf's place and exchanging pleasantries, you spend an hour or two resting on the edge of a roof overlooking the north side of the City, looking toward the great river that separates the City from the mainland. In the far distance, the construction crews set about getting ready to blow up what remains of the housing development you got the bag from earlier today. It's been a long day - you're guessing you ran about seventeen miles, but that's just horizontal: you went up and down quite a bit, so your arms and your back are just as tired as your legs. What you do for a living essentially makes you a professional athlete - for a very illegal sport. After a while, Leaf comes and sits next to you. You thank her for letting you stay with her tonight, but she tells you not to worry about it - you're welcome to stay whenever you like. The Runners are a business, not a resistance movement; you do have to care about what is lucrative and what is not. This was the origin of the Runners' no questions asked policy, which would work as long as your clients weren't part of the regime trying to shut you down. Nonetheless, you were founded for a cause, and most of you support that cause - and, in your case, you may have saved that cause. Your life has been too painful for you to smile often, but you let a slight smile at Leaf. The two of you sit there and look out at the City for another half an hour, before Leaf goes back inside. Once you are alone again, you reach into the back of your shirt and pull out the pamphlet that the client gave you earlier, and open it up. It immediately opens to the middle page, where a tip consisting of five hundred currency units in notes are inside - a quite nice tip for a Runner, actually. You pocket the cash, and then take a closer look at the pamphlet. Its title reads 'Alluvia' written across the top, with what looks like a flag underneath it like a country's flag, but you've never seen it before. You have heard the name before, but you barely remember it: something your parents talked about back before November. There is a bird in the center, a phoenix? It's surrounded by bands of green symbols that look almost like leaves, and a winding blue line, a river perhaps, through the center, behind (and underneath) the bird. Flipping to the first page, you seem to be confirming your guess: you see a map of what is obviously a country, which extends over some area on the mainland and focusing on the two major rivers, but the capital city is the City you are in. You shake your head - what is this? Continuing onto the next page, you begin to see what might be answers to some of your questions: Alluvia was an envisioned country, something that Libertas was hoping would happen. Needless to say, it never did. It makes you sad, as you move onto the next page - an painting of the City, overtaken by a wave of change, but a green wave, not a white one. Wait a moment; you've seen this picture before, except it wasn't a painting. It looked more like an actual photograph. Not long before your first real run, while on a training you managed to swipe a manila folder from under the nose of a private security SWAT officer, and in that folder was a message discussing what was referred to as 'an alternate thread' or something - you thought at the time that this was a masterful computer rendering and left it at that. Curious, you flip to the final page of the pamphlet, which begins talking about what is described as exotic physics... not unlike that strange report. Unable to stifle your curiosity, you flip on your com link. "Hey Merc. You there?" you ask. "Hear ya loud and clear, kiddo, just listening to the chatter," Merc replies. "Blues seem to have apprehended your friend from earlier today. They knocked him out and are taking him to the hospital. Wires say he's in critical condition." "Damn," you say, shaking your head. In this one case, you're almost glad, since their brutality may prevent them from doing their job. "He did some really stupid shit in front of 'em and didn't know how to run away," Merc adds. "So what's up?" "Do you remember the files I lifted out of that funny little office in the sewers just before my first official run?" you ask. "Yes, actually been looking at them today, in fact. Some of your encounter with the prof made me think of them," Merc says. "All right," you say. "This pamphlet, that the professor gave me and told me to read?" you remind Merc, who grunts in affirmation. "It has a painting of that picture, says it's an envisioned concept for the City that never was." You hear shuffling papers - Merc is probably getting out the folder and looking in it. "Yeah, but this isn't a painting. It's a photograph," he says. "That's what I thought I remembered," you say. "All right, you need to see this pamphlet. When do you want me back by tomorrow?" you ask. "Up to you," Merc says. "I don't have any runs for tomorrow and we're in the black for the time being. Leaf might have somethin' for you if you want, though, you should ask her." You look over the pamphlet again. You somehow can't shake the feeling that something very big is happening. You would chalk this up to insanity, but there are too many odd coincidences adding up - the way the professor looked at you earlier makes you think he probably has a pretty fair idea of exactly who you are, this pamphlet and that... photograph? The similarities are difficult to ignore, and the fact that while you might chalk up the professor to wishful thinking or even insanity, the fact that you were pursued, and by somebody at least trying to perform as a Runner, all make you think you should investigate this mystery. You should also rest, so that you don't injure yourself from over-exertion, but you should still be fresh enough for a short run tomorrow afternoon, depending. If you decide to head straight back to Merc's hideout tomorrow so that you can compare the file with the pamphlet, turn to page 10. If you ask Leaf if she has any runs you could do tomorrow on your way back, which would get you back late, turn to page 11. If you decide to show Leaf the pamphlet and ask her opinion, turn to page 12.
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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Apr 5, 2012 16:58:15 GMT -5
7Not even hesitating, you duck gracefully inside of the window. You almost knock over the cactus on your way in, but just as the middle-aged man reaches out to steady it, you grab the pot and place it back onto the windowsill. As you unsling your bag onto the counter, you take a look around the inside of the room. Inside, in addition to the bearded man, there is also a young woman, blonde, athletic, probably a few years older than you. There is also a small tree growing in a pot in the corner. For a moment, you wonder if she's his daughter, but then you get the answer. "Hi, I'm Jay Normal," says the man. "I'm a professor over in geology, but this is my wife Elanor's office," he says. "This is Sally Jones, our graduate student," he adds, gesturing to the woman, who smiles at you. You nod, somewhat distracted by the police sirens you're beginning to hear in the background. "You can stay here while the cops are looking for you. Unless they saw you climbing in this window, they won't have the authority to come in here," professor Normal says. "I'm guessing you encountered someone chasing you, hence the delay and the university surveillance calling the cops." "The camera did not see me on the wall. Sorry for asking, but how do you know I was followed?" you, unable to control your suspiciousness and concern, ask, as you step away from the window to make sure the camera still can't see you now that you're inside. "Well, let's see," the professor says, as he opens up the bag you set on the table, and gets out the contents: several data cartridges, photographs, and a plastic bag with some leaves in it. The bag he holds up, allowing you a better look, and Sally starts to jump up and down when she sees it, but then calms her excitement. Inside the bag is a twig of a tree with funny, needle-like leaves coming off of it, and many, many, small glass beads. "Specimens," he says. "This is why you were chased," he says to you. "This is Metasequoia, dawn redwood, from China. Sally's doctorate work, along with the California redwoods and a few other things. The City doesn't want us studying these, because they're relics of a bygone age: these are the trees that made up the forests of the dinosaurs, them and the Norfolk Island Pine over there," he says, gesturing to the potted tree in the corner. "They're the old world. The City doesn't want us studying them, because they want us to keep looking forward to our glorious Utopian future. They don't want us to remember the past." You are quite used to paying attention to several things at once, and right now there are several things to pay attention to. First off, Merc is suddenly typing much faster on his computer, and you wonder what for. You also hear a police loudspeaker shouting at somebody, but it's clearly not you. Meanwhile, the professor picks up a pamphlet off of his desk and hands it to you. 'Alluvia' is the name on the cover - wait, you've heard that name before, back when you and Kate were kids. "We'll need you to run this soon, but go ahead and read it yourself. There is something for you inside," he says. "How much physics have you had?" he asks. "Very little," you say. That is only sort of true... you didn't pay much attention in school in tenth grade, the year before you ran away. However, you've had a surprising amount of informal education in physics: Merc and Drake taught you to the level where you quite possibly understand momentum and kinetic energy about as well as a mechanical engineer, and you know enough about electricity to understand how circuits work, too. "A pity," the professor says. "I could explain the other reason why the City doesn't want us to pursue this research," he says. "You should ask Mercury to explain thermodynamics to you," he adds. "I'm sure you of all people will be quite able to understand it." Your eyes widen in surprise. "Me? You know who I am?" you almost exclaim, cautious to keep your voice down. You don't know where the blues are at the moment. "I have a pretty good guess," he says with a smile. "Elanor and I taught ecology to Abe Connors when we just got here. We were part of Vitalia at the time, and I think we may have inspired him to start Libertas, in fact," he answers. "You remind me a lot of Abe," he adds. You exhale, almost nodding. You still haven't escaped your past, but somehow, this side of it isn't that painful. He actually seems to respect you. "Here is what I will tell you: entropy is a physical measure of the thermodynamic disorder in systems. Life destroys entropy on Earth, although it requires more entropy to be created in the sun. Information is arguably the opposite of entropy. Life creates information, and the animals and plants in the world carry the information of our past, our history. If we assemble this information, it will remake the world. There is a physical explanation for this, too, but that part's beyond me, it's quantum mechanics. This was the discovery that fueled the Vitalia movement, which in turn fueled Libertas." The professor's words raise more questions in you than they provide answers, but internally you admit that looking up some more about physics would help you understand some of this. You still don't understand yet how this is going to help you, but again, that may be because you need a better grasp of the physics in order to see why. You are a little unnerved that he's apparently figured out that you are Abraham Connors' daughter, though. Did he really know your father that well? Merc's hammering on his keyboard continues now and again, and the clicking of his mouse continues unabated as well. Suddenly, you hear shouts from outside, and vaguely hear the stamping of feet. You can't quite make it out what they're shouting about, but Sally and J. Normal glance out as well, and J. motions for you to get into a door in the side of the office, behind the tree, and then hands you the runner bag you came with, the specimens again inside. After he unlocks it for you, you cautiously go in. It's dark, and you can barely hear anything through the muffled sounds of the door, but you can tell that the blues are just a few feet away through the wall in the hallway. It doesn't sound like they're in the office, though. After a number of minutes, you hear a knock at the door, followed by Sally telling you that it's safe to come out. You gladly do - you don't like having to hide with the help of people you don't even know, but you've chosen to trust them, so you essentially have to. Sally and Prof. Normal thank you again when you come out, and Sally offers to take you outside by way of the back door, in case anybody is still watching the front. She also tells you that the building is loaded with security cameras, and she can help you evade them. Again, you are glad for her guidance, although presumably Merc could get you out by this point. After three minutes of stalking and dodging through the hallways, you are outside. Sally thanks you again, shakes your hand, and then disappears back inside of the building. She doesn't need to worry about security cameras by herself, and, now that you are outside and not climbing buildings, neither do you - as far as they could tell, you look like a college student, once more. "Merc, you there?" you ask, standing outside. "Yep, see you now. No blues in the area, they've all gone home. Head for Leaf's place," he says. "She says she'll let you stay for the night. Oh, and good job, Faith. I'm looking up all of the stuff that the guy talked about. Do you know what entropy is?" he asks. "Nope, can't say I do," you answer. "All right, tomorrow, when you're here, we'll go over it. This could be really big, Faith. Really big," Merc says, sounding excited. "In a good way or a bad way?" you ask, as you begin to jog in the direction of Leaf's hideaway, toward the center of the city. "Good way," Merc says. "Very good way. We'll talk about it when you get here." "Sure thing," you say. "Now, what about our friend?" you ask. "Blues picked him up. I hope he doesn't spill any beans," Merc answers. "Just get to Leaf's place." You run harder, much more than a jog. Still, you don't encounter any dangers on your way to Leaf's north city hideout. Turn to Page 6.
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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Apr 7, 2012 1:10:27 GMT -5
8
You decide you can't trust the man, even though he is your client. Maybe he does mean well, probably does in fact, but he might not, and more importantly, even if he does mean well, you trust your speed, reflexes, and wits more than you trust his ability to keep you hidden from police. As you glance down to the street to plan your landing, you hear him suddenly say "If you must flee, at least take this!" he exclaims, handing you a small book or pamphlet. Not knowing what it's for, you take it - what could a booklet do? You glance at him and nod slightly, and then drop into a garden of white plastic plants lining the edge of Note Hall. As the window slams shut above you, you realize that the pamphlet could be a tracking device, so you duck behind cover from the plants out of view of the security camera on the far roof to take a look into it, just to make sure it's safe to carry. It opens up to a page in the middle where several hundred currency units of bills fall out, which you quickly snatch before they flutter to the ground and put them back. A glance of not more than a second and a half gives you the impression that it's some kind of travel brochure, so you close it up and slide it under your shirt behind your back. It's probably safe, although why the man wanted you to have it you can't fathom. Its title was the word 'Alluvia', however, which rings a distant bell in your mind, but you don't have time to think about it now. You're hidden from the camera, but not from the blues, and you have to get out of here before they show up.
"Nice hiding spot, Faith, the camera didn't see you. But get out of there before the blues do!" Merc suddenly says into your intercom, as if he knows exactly what you were thinking. Of course, he being what amounts to your adopted father for five years, that's not too surprising. Standing up and vaulting over the plastic bushes with a quick leap rather than crash through them, you sprint down the corridor between buildings and across a patio, in the direction opposite you hear the sirens coming. "Damn, there are blues here that aren't talking on the wires, so I don't know where they are. Be careful, Faith. Make sure you don't run into a trap!" Merc says. At that moment, you notice a few figures running across a fountain-plaza that you can see in the distance in your direction. They don't immediately look like blues, but that doesn't mean they aren't: the CPF does have plain clothes officers. Taking another glance, you see that your pursuer is on your trail again, coming from the other direction. Time to make yourself scarce.
Taking a half a second, you plot the best route you can up a good-sized building next to you - your guess is it's the art building from the mural on the wall depicting early concept art for the current City's skyline. But you want to be out of sight of the potential blues when you climb up - making them still think you might be a college student would be a good idea, in case they have to choose between chasing you or your other pursuer. Running around the side of the building, you find a rather sinuous air conditioning duct up to the roof - an easy way up. It takes you less than a minute to clear three stories, but that's when you hear the gunshot. That almost makes you pause for a moment, but you accelerate your climb as quickly as you can, gaining that last foot before you roll yourself onto the roof. You have no idea who was the target of that shot, but in case it was you, you're glad to be out of the line of fire.
"Faith?" Merc's voice says with concern.
"I'm all right," you say.
Now you hear a clang of the metal of the ventilation duct - someone, probably your pursuer, is coming up after you. Rolling to your feet and away from the edge of the building so that you're not in easy firing range from the ground, you take a quick look toward the southeast, which is the direction farthest away from the sirens. There aren't any buildings you can reach in that direction, not without a fifty foot jump. You're going to have to go due south, which is unfortunately toward the waiting line of police cars in the distance with their flashing lights. Clang, clang you hear the man climbing after you. He's getting closer. You've hesitated for too long. Taking a sprint, you jump to the nearest building, and then to the next one. At that moment, you hear a second gunshot. Ducking down and glancing behind you, you see your pursuer holding onto the ventilation duct you climbed up fifteen seconds ago, and then fall off, the red stain on the paint plainly marking what has happened. You really don't want that to be what happens to you here, too, so you keep running over the next rooftops to a cluster of four buildings overlooking the road that forms the south border of campus. You can see lines of squad cars, with blues talking into their communicators, and others with their weapons poised. Shit, you're on an island of about eight buildings in a sea of concrete, and the only way off is on a zip-line that will take you no more than fifty feet over the blues' heads and onto the patio of a shopping mall, which, fortunately, has relatively few people on it. There is no way you're going to get over there without being seen and, probably, shot at. "Shit, I don't see any way out of there for you, Faith," Merc says suddenly. "Try to see if you can stealth your way out between the buildings that you're on."
"There's a zipline," you say, "but there's no way to use it without being seen." That must not be on Merc's map. You take a glance at the alleyways between the four buildings at the end of the island, noting the positions of dumpsters and one abandoned-looking truck. Ducking down, you take a few seconds to review your options - at least, you are not being followed by the likely dead want-to-be Runner anymore, but a wrong move and you'll soon be as dead as he probably is.
If you go for speed and take the zipline, and hope that the blues won't be able to chase you (or shoot accurately enough to hit you), turn to page 16. If you decide that the zipline is too risky and try to escape on the ground after the blues have hopefully given up searching, turn to page 17.
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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Apr 7, 2012 17:51:34 GMT -5
9You don't need to be told when you need to run from the blues. At the moment, you aren't entirely sure why they're in such an untalkative mood, but you've been shot once, and really don't want to get shot again. You've never told Merc, but you do know how lucky you are to have survived. You glance around the buildings, trying to take the quickest stock you can of the situation, figuring out the best way east. Using the sun as your landmark, you figure it's best to try the ground route, and you sprint, as fast as you can, then slowing so that you don't poison yourself with lactic acid. You don't dare slow too much, however, and you need every bit of performance your athletic talent and training can give you: already, you hear the sirens wailing like some demented choir. Approaching the edge of the university campus, you see that the blues' cars haven't quite arrived yet, but you see flashing lights in the distance, reflecting off of windows several blocks away. Figures run out between two tall university buildings, maybe dormitories, but they don't (yet) seem headed for you. You don't waste any time, and run across the street at a full sprint, having barely enough time to cross in the heavy afternoon traffic before a large truck from Callaghan Construction almost flattens you. Remembering what you last, Elaine Callaghan was running for the senate - you wonder if she's the same person as the company. You don't let that distract you for more than a split second, though, as you vault up onto a fire escape stairway and onto the roof of a nearby store outside of campus. Good, no cameras up here, and a cable connecting you to more buildings inland. Sometimes, you almost wonder if the City itself is trying to protest against the government by helping you with useful architecture. By now, you ought to be far enough away from the police that you can figure out what do do now. "Good, you're off campus. Head south; try to stay out of sight. Damn, what a mess," you hear Merc suddenly chime in, as if he thought the same thing you did at the same time. "I've sent the client a message that we'll try to deliver the bag again tomorrow. Shouldn't be a problem, unless security on campus is tighter than it was today because of this incident. In that case, we'll find another drop off point. You good to make it back to base?" "Sure, on my way," you answer. "Yeah, blues got the guy you left behind. Now they're still combing the campus. They suspect you're a Runner, but they don't seem to be sure," Merc explains. "Haven't realized you've escaped yet, but make sure you're as far away as you can by the time they do." After jumping along the three and four-story buildings, you come to a spot where getting across a large avenue is more of a challenge - no obvious ways across it short of returning to ground level. As you watch, a police car whizzes by on the road below weaving between other cars, no blinking lights or siren, but clearly going somewhere in a hurry. Anyone on the ground who saw you would know you were a Runner - you've still got your bag. You look around on the building you're on, and notice a sewer grate leading what looks like under the avenue. "Merc, I'm at Elysium road and not seeing a way across. Can you see the sewer drain oh, about fifty feet northwest of me? Does it go anywhere useful?" you ask. "And by the way, when you say the blues don't know I'm a Runner, do you mean they don't know that I, Faith, am a runner, or that they don't know that the woman they saw was me?" "Looking," Merc says, for a pause. "Yeah, take that grate. Once you go about a hundred yards, turn right, and go up the ladder. That will take you to an alleyway you can use to get back up to the rooftops," he says. As you leap down onto an air conditioning vent over an alley between two buildings with a metallic clang before making the two-story drop to the pavement below, Merc then adds "They haven't identified you yet - wait, no, someone in the Shard just did, looking through an old file. They know exactly who you are now, and they're starting a wider search of the area. Shit, they just spotted someone and are going after her." You duck into the sewer grate. Underground, with your view of the sky and any radio towers blocked, you are out of transmission. Your com links aren't 100% secure, but by the time they figure out where you are, you'll be long gone. Running down sewer corridor, which is absurdly spacious to account for the City's tsunami defense, you identify the turn Merc told you about and climb up into a new alley. These alleys are almost gritty enough to be part of the Old City. It makes you wonder if the anti-crime preventions of the New City are as effective as the City Eye and the City Ear make them out to be, but that said, there is no graffiti here that was here. Still, in case there are gang bangers here, you don't want to run into one: getting killed by a street thug is no better than getting killed by blues. In fact, it would be worse - the blues would just kill you if they caught you, while street thugs might do other bad things to you first. Rather quickly, you start climbing up a pipe that leads to the roof of maybe a laundromat? You aren't sure - it's another odd piece of architecture that helps you. This puts you in reach of an eleven-story hotel, the first skyscraper on your trip back to the south. Getting up that turns into a little bit of a challenge, as there aren't wires quite everywhere, and in one place you scare a couple inside by using their balcony as a perch. You ask Merc if he hears anything from the hotel's security, but he doesn't, and you make it up. Then it's zip-lining and ramp-jumping back home, and using air conditioning units to get over the disturbingly frequent electrified or razor-wire fences. You swear there are more and more of those - is the City enforcing them as a way to deter Runners? It doesn't stop you, though, at least not yet. The last rays of the sun have faded off of the sparse purple clouds when you finally make it back to Merc's hideout, utterly exhausted, and drop into the skylight. "Hey, kiddo, sorry it got so hot there today. Still don't know why the blues got into such a tizzy," he says as you sit down and rest your aching body. "CPF, SSS, Darkwater, Pirandello-Krueger, Golden Shield, they all were there." Still breathing heavily, you sprawl on the floor. "What about our 'friend'? And what do we do about the delivery?" you ask, panting. Merc spins his chair out and rotates the computer monitor to give you a better view of the screen. You sit up and get on your knees to look at the map of the City as Merc indicates a former park on the south side of town. "We'll meet the contact here and arrange for a dropoff," Merc says. "Construction area is nearby, but the workers are going to have the day off because they're working on one of Callaghan's other projects. Seriously, that woman overworks her employees bigtime." "Doesn't everyone in this City?" you ask rhetorically. "Nope, not quite," Merc says. "You aren't going to do that run unless you really want to. You've done your share of dodging blues and neutralizing a threat for a couple days, not to mention running what, twenty miles?" Merc asks. "Oh, don't worry about your secret admirer. The blues roughed him up so bad he's in the hospital in critical condition. They say he's not likely to survive the night." "Shit, why, Merc?" you ask, shaking your head. "Dunno, kiddo," Merc answers. "He did wake up before the blues got to him, and he swear at them a lot, but it almost seemed like it was planned," he adds. "Like they wanted him as a scapegoat or something, or didn't want to talk but didn't want the press for just blowing his head off." You shake your head in disgust. "Anyhow, you get a good night's sleep. There's a bowl of spaghetti over there," he says, pointing under the cover where you and he keep food, not possessing much refrigeration. Your stomach grumbles as you think about it. "You don't need to decide whether to deliver the package yourself tomorrow or I'll have Isaac do it, maybe, until tomorrow morning," Merc says. "If I were you, I would rest a day, but up to you." You thank Merc, have a light dinner, and then go to sleep. If you insist that you want to finish the job you took yourself, despite being still tired and sore, turn to page 14. If you decide to take Merc's advice and let another Runner deliver the package you tried to today, turn to page 15.
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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Apr 9, 2012 0:25:08 GMT -5
10
You wake up with a start. The sun is already shining and, judging from the light filtering through the blinds, it has been up for several hours. More to your notice, however, is the puttering of the engine of a helicopter. Startled, you take a quick glance around you, looking for Leaf, whom you don't see, and then cautiously look out the blinds. Your eyes are greeted by a City Eye helicopter roaring overhead heading northwest, perhaps toward the university where you were yesterday. Blinking, you rouse yourself from your dream, putting aside the momentary thoughts of extreme danger. You really thought there were going to be blues swarming the roof out there. Letting out a breath, you drop out of the loft and down to Leaf's computer room and small library. Having been here before, you think nothing of it - Leaf is nowhere to be seen. Probably, she is out on a run; she is one of the few trackers who is still an active Runner as well, but then, she's also younger than Merc or Drake, and her skills are more... practical for a Runner than for a tracker. You take a glance at the clock, then take a glance outside. It's 9:38 in the morning. Your estimate of the time of day was only eight minutes off. Stretching, you pick up the pamphlet you picked up yesterday and tuck it under your shirt again, drop a quick thank-you note on Leaf's desk, take a glance outside while still in the darkness of the attic to make sure you saw no blues on the roof, and off you go.
It's about six miles to Merc's hideout, which takes you right through the heart of the City, even to the point where you take a minute or two to relax while standing on one of the lower balconies of the Shard on your way over. It takes you about an hour and a half to arrive, so it's approaching noon - which highlights just how far you've actually been running with all of the ups, downs, and side-to-sides, since your average ground speed when not hurrying is about eight miles per hour. Still, you needed the rest, and Merc is glad you're home. He smiles at you as you drop into the hatch in the roof of the cooling tower. You tell him that Leaf is all right, and then sit back and look at the maps that he's been going over. His several other Runners are out doing various jobs today, one of them delivering a message to a small-time Yakuza boss in the south side of town whose protection racket actually does offer protection, from the blues no less! After some small chatting about how Leaf is doing and how your return here was uneventful, you pull out the pamphlet, pull up a seat, and start looking at it over Merc's desk. Merc, meanwhile, pulls out the files you lifted out of those strange offices a little over a year ago.
The first thing you do is look at the picture on the PK file and compare it to the painting in the pamphlet. It's subtly different, but they both look into the core of a collection of skyscrapers in the heart of the City, which are indeed gleaming white but with many large windows, balconies, and even the roofs covered in vegetation. In the center, there is you guess what passes for the Shard, but it's a rounded, semi-pyramidal thing, which looks half office building and half greenhouse, if that is possible. The 'photograph', if that's what it is, is taken from a slightly different angle, though, and the painting is more or less a full frontal view. You also can pick out several older buildings that aren't there today - demolished by the New City - but which are in the picture. For several minutes, you and Merc puzzle over the two pictures, picking out the similarities and differences. Eventually Merc answers "This one's definitely a photograph," he says. "Look at this texturing, there's grit here. Nobody would bother doing this on computer - and if they did, then the grit would be everywhere, but it's just here" he adds as he points to one of the smaller portions of the picture. You nod as you follow his finger. "How the hell did they take this? And who took it?"
You start looking over the rest of the PK documents, as Merc stares almost dumbfounded looking at the pamphlet, and the photo. "Several of these files discuss something about probability distributions?" you find yourself asking. "And wave functions. Take a look at the last page of that pamphlet," you say.
Merc flips to it, and reads, and then starts nodding. "They never taught me this in physics," he mutters under his breath.
You look back at him, your curiosity piqued. There are a lot of clues here, but unfortunately, your informal education in physics is rather limited - you know about all of the forces and factors that you use in being a Runner: Merc did teach you about force, torque, gravity, and the conservations of momentum and angular momentum, and Drake taught you enough about computers and electronics that you can at least fix his stuff when it breaks, but not either of your parents. You sigh. "Merc, I'm trying to understand this," you say. "How did you learn the physics you taught me?"
Merc chuckles. "I had a part of an engineering degree in college," he says. "That was before November."
"I'm going to pick your brains on any science we can piece together to maybe understand this," you say.
Merc chuckles again. "Hey, if I can't remember it, we can look it up!" he says, motioning to his computer.
If you ask Merc if he's ever heard of Alluvia before this, turn to page 18. If you ask him about probability distributions and wave functions, turn to page 19. If you ask him about Vitalia and the beginning of Libertas, turn to page 20. If you ask him about entropy and biophysics, turn to page 21. If you ask him what he knows about dawn redwood, turn to page 22. If you try to look up what you can find about Elanor Normal, turn to page 23.
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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Apr 11, 2012 19:27:55 GMT -5
11
Carefully, you put the pamphlet away, and then you arrange your things, what few things you carry for your trip tomorrow, before you approach Leaf again. "Leaf, by the way, I'm wondering," you say, "Merc doesn't need me back until late tomorrow. Is there anything I can do for you tomorrow, maybe?" you ask.
Leaf smiles back. "Yes, as a matter of fact - I'm carrying a package of Red's photos to a contact tomorrow, and could use an extra pair of legs," she answers. You inwardly want to groan and hesitate about carrying any more of Red's pictures... it was him who took the pictures of your father for Silvine. Leaf is able to notice your misgivings even though you try to stifle them, though. "No, I know who the pictures are for. They're for Doug Earlsberg, do you know the name? He's running a resistance cell in the Old Town slum on the west side. Now, I don't know what he wants 'em for, but I trust that he's not working for the New City's takeover."
Laughing, you say "Yes, I know the name. So we're not working for tyrants; we're working for terrorists! Count me in."
Leaf stifles a laugh herself, but then says more seriously "You know, they could actually be terrorists, or planning something terrorist. All I know is that I'm picking up the photographs from Red tomorrow," she says. You nod. Not everybody in Libertas is peaceful, and whether or not you approve of their means of trying to bring down the totalitarian government, you at least sympathize with their view. You also remember when Earlsberg, a former Libertas member, tried to run for a school district superintendent on the platform that he would welcome children back to teach them their history, not long before you ran away from home. You remember hearing while you were living as a street thief a news broadcast about how she had been arrested for minor conspiracy on charges that at the time made you think they sounded made up, and still do. That was years ago, though, so it doesn't surprise you that much that he's out now - even in the police state of the New City, they still have to pretend to be a democracy. "All right, well get some sleep," Leaf tells you. "We're supposed to meet Red no later than 9:00 a.m. tomorrow, and it'll be four or five in the afternoon by the time we get back."
Following Leaf's advice, you go to bed immediately after sharing a few leftover sandwiches for dinner. You sleep soundly that night in Leaf's attic, getting about nine hours of rest before your run early tomorrow morning. Although you do actually sleep well, you dream about waking up the following morning in the bright sun, much too late, and with the familiar sounds of helicopters buzzing overhead - but, as you step out of the attic apartment, you are suddenly swarmed by a small army of blues! The rest of your dream proceeds in darkness with you thinking that you're dead, but then wondering how you are able to think about being dead if you are? You aren't, of course - you wake up at six as planned, alive, healthy, and refreshed, and the shadows are still long, not the middle of the day as you dreamt. As the two of you spare a short breakfast, you do hear helicopters, which causes you to jump, but looking through the blinds in a window, it's just the City Eye going somewhere, not interested in you.
You're out quite early, telling Merc what you're doing and giving him an estimate of when you'll be back. Being somewhat generous, you say 6:00 p.m., hoping to be back a little bit before then, since you do want to go over the pamphlet when you get there. First stop for today is Red's house in Old Town, where you arrive at about 8:30. Red remembers you from your last... meeting. You can tell that he isn't entirely thrilled to see you again, but he is willing to do business. Maybe this way you can get on his good side again. You and Leaf hand Red your bags so that he can fill them with the pictures without having to see them, which you then put back on and head for the west side. Using Leaf's map, the two of you are able to plan your route mostly through stretches of Old Town, which means that, for the moment, you actually can run on the streets instead of the rooftops, since the City surveillance is less extensive in Old Town. There are occasional bits of the New City separating sections of Old Town that you do need to keep to the rooftops in order to get over, but these are straightforward. This far from downtown, even if you were to fall off one of these buildings, all you would likely have to worry about would be a few broken bones - not that you would want that, of course, but you're also not going to fall off, and neither is Leaf, the two of you being among the very best of the Runners.
It's late morning as you approach your destination in the brown-painted warehouses in the far west of the City, the closest thing to a slum that the City still has left near the docks. This is one of the local Mafia's favorite haunts, especially now that they are limited in where they can go and what they can do in the New City. This area is dangerous enough that the two of you keep to the rooftops despite not being under concentrated surveillance: the blues not only catch Runners when they can, but they also catch street thugs, and street thugs also catch and kill Runners when they can. Neither pays Runners a whole lot of attention, though, because catching Runners is usually more trouble than it's worth - sort of the whole point. This still isn't to say that a Runner's life expectancy is all that great, of course.
You are reminded of this chilling fact as you notice a group of men on top of and around a warehouse about three hundred yards away from you, wearing what look like combat uniforms similar to what the SWAT blues wear that SSS and PK sometimes use, but the blues' SWAT uniforms aren't gray like these guys' are. Honestly, they look more like soldiers, than elite blues. Suddenly, you notice that there are three more of them on a low office building, with just their heads showing, which means they're lying down and looking over the edge. That can mean only one thing. You quickly grab at Leaf and pull her down onto the roof of a sloping warehouse, just as she reaches to do the same to you. With a loud clang you both hit the corrugated metal of the warehouse - a split second before the bullets whiz through the air where you would have been.
You're now hidden from the snipers by the sloping side of the roof - whoever they are. "Did you see the group in the warehouse two blocks over?" Leaf asks as you inch your way down the roof.
"Yeah, saw them - they sure don't look like blues," you reply. Getting to the edge of the warehouse, you drop now, figuring that you'll be less exposed on the ground than on top of buildings. Leaf apparently is thinking the same thing, which is not surprising, since she's the one who taught you all you know about combat.
"They're not blues," Leaf says as you land, looking around at the semi-abandoned looking car and truck in the parking lot of the seemingly abandoned warehouse as well. "I think they're one of the private contractors. I think the New City government is thinking of annexing a part of the mainland," Leaf adds under her breath. You don't express the thought that their shooting at you probably has something to do with what you are carrying, but you're certain that Leaf is thinking the same thing. After several months of quiet, your life has suddenly gotten really interesting again, from yesterday's being chased, to being shot at today!
You inch away from the building, knowing you can't stay here - those soldiers are probably going to come for you here, now. You point to the wall around the warehouse's lot and Leaf nods. Sprinting, you manage to vault over the ten-foot wall before the snipers on the building behind you can line up another shot on you. Dropping to the street on the other side, Leaf picks a direction and sprints, hopefully taking you away, not towards, any more danger. Reaching the end of the wall at a street corner, however, you know that you can't turn on the street the way you normally could, because you would be in full view of the sniper nests. Leaf this time points you the way, darting down an alleyway between two buildings and using a dumpster for cover, the two of you make it to the next street, and to another large warehouse lot. This one is occupied, though, but not by soldiers: they look like more ordinary construction workers, but the way that they carry themselves makes you think they're probably Mafiosi. Still, they're better than soldiers or security guards. You and Leaf sprint through their lot, dodging to and fro between them, both to make yourselves difficult targets in case the snipers get enough of a bead on you to shoot at you again, or in case the possible mobsters will stop you themselves. The latter don't try, although they do react with surprise as you run by and around them. Still at your full sprint, you reach the opposite wall on the far side of the warehouse property and vault over it as you did the last one, and then you have to stop to catch your breath. Both you and Leaf can run twenty miles per hour, but not even the finest Olympic athletes can run that fast for long!
As you pant, Leaf pulls out the map and points another block down - you've got barely three blocks left to go. You're hoping that any pursuit will not be able to reach you there, when suddenly a burst of gunfire opens up behind you, on the far side of the wall you just came over. Whoever those soldiers are, they're chasing you!
"Leaf, you got a com link?" you hiss, flipping yours on and glancing around to see where you can go. Leaf doesn't let you get an answer - she bolts for the next alleyway, apparently trying the same trick you and she just pulled off a minute ago. Following her as best you can, you make it through the alleyway and behind a dumpster and onto the next street, taking cover just in time as another sniper shot swishes through the air down the alley you ducked through. You can tell these are very high-powered rifles because you can hear the bullet passing by you before you hear the gunshot. Leaf is glancing at the next warehouse, and you jab her in the ribs and slap your hand over your chest. You are fully aware that you won't be able to manage another sprint like that without more of a rest, and neither will she. "Merc, you hear me?" you gasp.
After what seems like an age-long pause which could only have been a couple of seconds, Merc responds "Hey, kiddo, what's up?"
"Leaf and I are being shot at by soldiers! See if you can get in on their transmissions!" you hiss. Leaf taps you, and starts running south down this side of the block, but stops at the edge of the street. There aren't many cars driving down it, but there are a few, but those are the least of your worries at the moment. Merc typing into his computer tells you that he's looking, but hasn't found what he's looking for yet. Starting to get worried, you cast a glance up the street. You think you can see the warehouse you and Leaf are headed for up ahead, but if you go straight for it, the snipers will pick you off - and you don't have much time to think, lest those soldiers catch up to you, and you don't know how far they are behind you.
Leaf gasps. The only good thing is that the soldiers are probably at least as winded as you are, since they're carrying a great deal more than you. But who are they, and why are they chasing you? Leaf leans in close to you and whispers "that wall running the direction we're going," she says, pointing to an outer wall of another, large, warehouse property, "we should be an oblique angle now to the snipers," she continues. "We might have enough cover from it. Or we could go another block to the south and cut back, that would leave us two blocks south and two west of where we need to go." You nod, knowing her unspoken concern. If you take too much of a detour taking cover from the snipers, the soldiers actually chasing you might be able to get between you and your destination, and it would be all over. On the other hand, if the snipers do get a line of sight to you, they will drop you very easily. You take another glance at the wall in front of you, and where you think the building the snipers are perched on behind you is - you think you'll have cover, but you aren't sure. "What do you think, Faith?" Leaf asks you suddenly. More gunfire sounds behind you, closer than before - the soldiers are probably shooting it out with the Mafia, and there's almost no way that soldiers could loose, if that really is what they are. For that matter, you hope that Doug Earlsberg has some defenses himself or making it there will make no difference either! For now, though, you've got to think fast: what do you do?
If you bolt down the street with the wall here as fast as you can, hoping that it will provide enough cover, turn to page 24. If you head one more block south, turn to page 25.
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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Apr 11, 2012 22:40:57 GMT -5
12Picking yourself up off of the edge of the roof where you were taking in the sights, you head back up to the slightly higher level and into Leaf's attic. Leaf glances at you in acknowledgement before returning to her computer and looking at it. You don't know exactly what she's working on, but she looks pretty engaged, so you take your shoes off and ready to sleep, feeling very tired, and pull out the pamphlet for a look, reading it carefully. You really don't understand what it's talking about on the final page - you think it's probably talking about quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, or both, based on loose bits you've heard here and there, but you don't know enough of that area of physics to make heads or tails of it. The only fields of physics you know well are mechanics (how being a Runner works physically), and electricity (why Drake's stuff sometimes stops working and how to fix it). You know biology better, but even then, you really only know your biology, so understanding why it is that "life destroys local entropy", or what that even means, is beyond you. Leaf isn't likely to know much about that either, you guess, but she might have heard of Alluvia. You wait until Leaf is finished, but just as she finishes, she looks up at you. "Something on your mind, Faith?" she asks. Leaf has seemed kinder to you ever since the Silvine incident, and you are grateful for it. "Yeah," you answer. "Have a look at this," you say, as you hand her the pamphlet. "Alluvia?" Leaf answers, looking at it in disbelief. "Faith, where did you get this? And how?" You answer that you got it from the client you delivered your bag to today - and that he wanted you not only to have it to run it to someone else soon, but also for you to take a look at it. Leaf listens, flipping through the pages. "I have to wonder how he got it, then," she says. "Faith, Alluvia was what Libertas would have created, a country. I actually trained with what was going to be their militia, that's where I got my combat training." She sits back and looks up at the ceiling for a few seconds, lost in thought, although you think you see her mouth the name 'Alex' as she thinks, before turning back to you and handing you back the pamphlet. "Look at the date," she says. You do look for the date of the pamphlet and eventually find it - it's several years ago, shortly before you ran away, but long after Libertas was history. "I don't know who made that, but it looks like something to tell you about something that's real, not a wish-list," Leaf says. "If that's true, then Alluvia could be both our greatest hope and our worst fear at once. It would have been a country, founded on all the things that we Runners and the rest of November believed in and fought for, and still fight for. But as a country, and as a self-reliant country at that, they'd be sure to have quite a military, and if their militia training was any indication, civilians wouldn't be pushovers either. If they really were able to put together a real Alluvia and then invade, then they could liberate the City - but then they would have to rebuild it, because anything the SWAT or other paramilitary forces contested would turn into a battlefield and probably lie in ruins by the time the battle were over." "You don't think they're just terrorists?" you ask, remembering that November - that being the name Libertas supporters took after the Riots - or people claiming to be November have indeed been responsible for terrorist attacks. "Na uh," Leaf retorts, shaking her head. "I doubt they'd use Alluvia's name for that. Besides, the third page of that booklet is talking about exotic physics, not your usual propaganda or rhetoric," she continues. "I can't explain what those physics are, but it's physics, and it's not bomb physics or anything. I'm reminded of Vitalia, which is the movement that started Libertas, which supposedly made a discovery of some kind of exotic physics. You gotta show that to Drake, Faith - he's the one most likely to understand it." You look over the pamphlet's final page and its exotic physics discussion, although your attention is still drawn more to the painting. You are a very visual person. "When you do show it to Drake, let me know what he thinks, too, okay?" Leaf asks. "Sure," you say with some enthusiasm - your curiosity is definitely piqued. Could this pamphlet, or the information in it, actually make that painting a reality? It might cause a lot of loss of life, of course, but you would be quite willing to risk your life for it. Freedom already has a pretty steep price. Now, though, you must decide what you will do tomorrow. If you decide to head straight back to Merc's hideout tomorrow morning so that you can discuss the pamphlet with him, turn to page 10. If you ask Leaf if she has a run you could do for her tomorrow and come back, turn to page 11.
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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Apr 12, 2012 13:43:54 GMT -5
13
"Merc," you say, "we have to deliver this package. With this must pursuit, it's got to be important."
As you take a glance around, trying to figure out the best way to get into Note Hall with a minimum of being spotted, you hear Merc's voice sighing. "Don't get yourself killed, kiddo," he says. "You're probably the best of my Runners," he adds. Half listening, you break into a sprint back toward Note Hall. The real reason for Merc's concern, of course, is that you are what amounts to his adopted daughter and he the father you never really had. From an athletic prospective, while you are certainly a very, very good Runner, your sprint speed is just over twenty miles per hour, not twenty-five or more, which in turn affects your jump distance - if you are the best, then it's because you're also a good martial artist, not just because you're a Runner.
The wailing sirens are drawing closer. "Merc, I see a security cam on top of a nearby building, but it's rotating. Keep me posted when it's looking," you say as you look up at it.
You hear Merc's breathing tense as he waits in anticipation. "Five... four... three... two... one... Go!" Merc counts down into your com link as you spot the window from the street below with the actual plants in the window. At the word Go, you sprint forward to gain momentum and use that to half-climb up the wall to the concrete ledge on second floor, then swing yourself next to the window with the plant around a concrete baluster. Frantically, you tap the window, and it opens immediately.
A middle-aged man with graying hair and beard opens the window and smiles at you as you hand him the bag. Next to him stands a young, athletic, blonde woman, maybe a couple years older than you. "Here, take this," he says, handing you what looks like a pamphlet, with the name 'Alluvia' printed on the cover. You've heard that name before, but you don't have time now to think about it, so you tuck it under your shirt against your back. "You'll need to run it, but read it first." He frantically opens up the bag, while glancing past you at the camera on the building behind you. The wailing sirens like some demented choir seem to be calling you from all directions. He pulls out a small plastic bag, containing what look like twigs with needles of some kind of tree, and many, many, tiny glass or plastic beads. "Dawn redwood, from China!" he hisses in excitement.
The woman suddenly jumps up and down. "Dawn Redwood!" she hisses herself. Then she looks at you. "Hi, I'm Sally. I'm Elanor Normal's student. Now get going - this will all be for nothing if they see you!" she whispers. Not hesitating, you drop back down into the fake plastic garden, roll, and sprint in the direction away from the revolving camera as Sally slams the window behind you.
"Good, the camera didn't see you!" Merc comments as you make your getaway into a more open plaza. Shit, you see blues heading for you on some of the walkways connecting the far side of the plaza!
"Merc, what's the best way out of here?" you ask as you duck behind cover and start climbing. With any luck, the blues themselves didn't see you.
"Head east," Merc answers. "Their net has a hole in it over there. I'll direct you." In a few short seconds, you are back in your element, on top of a building, and leaping to the next, barely clearing a twenty-five foot gap by grabbing the ledge on the far side and mantling yourself up without pause. In this dystopia, this is undeniably the best life you could wish for. "Damn, one of them just saw you making that jump. This is turning into a real mess. Once you cross the avenue, head southeast. I'm trying to get you to higher ground."
The way across the avenue this direction is obvious: a covered walkway across the road between a medium-sized hotel and something with an abstract sculpture in the patio in front, maybe an art building. You sprint across the avenue, about sixty feet above the heads of the several police cars with lights blaring below you. Now you have a choice, though: go through the building and up the roof, where it looks like you can balance on a cable on up to a higher building a half a block away, or continue at the level of these three and four-story buildings you're currently on? Going up will cause you to lose time - and thus distance - but it will gain you altitude, so you will be harder to shoot at from the ground. You haven't heard the blues shooting yet, but from the sound of it, they're going to. This is obviously much more important of a job than you thought at first, which makes you wonder why a few leaves of 'dawn redwood' are so important, or who Elanor Normal is and what she works on. Suddenly, you hear an engine and a change in the pitch of a siren - they're getting into their squad cars to pursue you. You've got to decide quickly!
If you try to get farther above the blues and hope they don't come up after you, turn to page 26. If you keep going level and hope that the traffic and positions of the buildings themselves will stymie the blues, turn to page 27.
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Post by Alex Slater (chlorophyll) on Apr 13, 2012 14:47:55 GMT -5
14
After you wake up the following morning, you tell Merc that you want to finish what you started, slinging the bag over and picking up your com link and attaching it. Merc points you again to his city map, to a plaza that had at one time been a park. It still is a park, you guess, with fountains still in it, but the trees are gone. You had better bring your hooded sweatshirt - you will be under surveillance in that plaza. Merc still shows some of his concern, though - he, unlike Callaghan, may not overwork you, but that won't you help too much if you overwork yourself. It takes you about an hour to get over to the area in question, next to the docks. It's about 9:30 as you perch on the roof of a shopping mall, hood thrown back so that the sound doesn't muffle your ears. The person you're looking for is an athletic young blonde woman who's going to be wearing a light white sweatshirt and olive green pants, and a red ribbon in her hair. The ribbon should be distinctive, and she'll be in a small white car - this almost seems like it will be too easy.
You should be early, but you see people mulling about down below, going in to shop, carrying out their packaged food and various other consumer merchandise. A block away, some kind of large, but low, building is under construction, looks like it's going to be maybe five floors, max, your guess is some kind of small office complex, but it's got something that could be a movie theater, too, you're not sure. Nobody is there at the moment, but another couple of blocks away in a different direction there is another construction site swarming with workers wearing their bright yellow hard-hats and drab blue overalls. The cranes, painted bright red, are swinging around lifting all manner of things for them. You have to wonder why the cranes are painted that color: is it to confuse your Runner vision? If so, then it doesn't work, because you use cranes as often as you can; they're sturdy and can support your weight, which other kinds of debries on rooftops can't always, although you've learned to distinguish what can support your weight and what can't - yeah, you've informally studied structural engineering, too, in addition to basic physics and electronics. You remember for a moment that your Runner vision also lets you ignore some colors which are useless and fake - the plastic plants, for example, some of them really are green, but you wash them out white. Real plants you don't wash out. You like green things that should be green.
The plaza in question, however, on the other side of the parking lot, lies empty. Nobody is there. You ask Merc how long he expects you to have to wait, but he isn't sure - your contact is supposed to be here later this morning, about 10:00 a.m., but there's been an incident in the mid-town and a collision involving one of Burfield Shipping's trucks on the freeway, so it could be that your contact has gotten stuck in traffic. He isn't sure what you should do other than to just sit tight. You, however, are feeling a little jumpy after yesterday. But, if you go scouting around and the contact arrives without you - or, worse, if you go street-level and someone identifies you as a Runner - then your jumpiness could actually cause more trouble than you would otherwise. Of course, if your experiences yesterday were any indication, someone is likely to be looking for you here too. You glance at the clock shown on a bank another block away: 9:48. What do you do?
If you scout the area to make sure no one else is lurking for you or your contact and hope you come back and catch her before she leaves or gets upset (and that nobody identifies you and calls the blues), turn to page 28. If you wait for your contact and hope she is on time, turn to page 29.
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