Joe's Diner, downtown NMK, about Midday, Wednesday the 10th of March, 2055.

At last my omelette has arrived. Just as I start to tuck into it Crash tells me to eat it quick as we have to leave now! He reckons the police will be here soon. Shit I was looking forward to that.

Crash has a word with the barman as we leave and gets a copy on datachip of everything that’s just happened outside. Should make for fun viewing later, I recommend it’s given an 18 cert.

As we walk outside to join the others it seems the guy they hoisted out of the car is called George. Roland has his wallet; 2000eb, not bad for a hoodlum. I jump on the Shiva and we decide to meet at one of Sykes’ dodgy warehouses, George gets bundled into the back of Roland’s car after Shen decides to relive him of 500eb "to cover the damage" he says. Tight arse I say!

I drive down to the docks to the seedy part, not surprising as I am going to Sykes patch. I find the warehouse and Sykes locks the door after we have parked all our various vehicles inside.

It's quite a big warehouse but also dark and smelly. I can't see all the way to the back and I feel slightly unnerved, it doesn’t begin to ease when they pull George from the car and drag him to a chair. Everyone starts to discuss what we are going to do with him and while we are all distracted George pulls a credit card out of his wallet and he snaps it. Shit, it must be a tracker. Sykes and Louis tie him to the chair and decide to threaten him with the vial of blue liquid.

I decide that if the cc is a tracker then someone is going to turn up soon so I stand near the door keeping watch while Roland starts to interrogate him. I can’t watch interrogation if I am not the one performing it. Call it a quirk, but we all have them.

George starts to talk. It turns out he works for a guy called Leon Kronsky and George was sent to keep an eye on us as we definitely have in our possession a Biotechnica product.

As usual, arguing ensues as everyone starts to hypothesise. I re-do my make up and walk round the outside of the warehouse partially hoping to "bump" into someone to take out my aggression on. I meet no-one and they are still arguing when I finish my perimeter check. Louis wonders why are we being kept alive by Biotechnica, but George doesn’t seem to know. I don’t know why either.

1:25pm, Warehouse District, Docks

We are all tired now and decide to crash in another one of Sykes places, how many places does he have?? I don’t ask questions anymore, since our place got blown up I am just glad of somewhere to kip.

We left George at the other warehouse with his cc. Shen went off on one with duct tape and large cable ties. I think there is a fetishist in there screaming to get out of Shen. He goes mad with it. George is going no-where on his own.

We all find a place to crash. I make sure I am near Louis. I nearly trust him; I have seen how professional he is. Still who do you trust if you’re the only female with 5 men you have known for only a month. I sleep with my gun in my hand.

Sykes, Louis and Shen wake about 4pm, the rest of us are awake about 6. Louis wakes me carefully spotting the gun. I grab a coffee while he tells me they have done some research on Leon Kronsky, who turns out to be on the Board of Biotechnica. He is a very rich man. He hasn’t been very active though the past few years and is a professional recluse. Sykes makes a call to his "friend" Max, who tells him that no-one has seen him for at least 5 years and that he is being kept alive only by drugs supplied by Biotechnica.

Is the blue goo some sort of medicine?

Crash has woken up feeling very unwell. He asks if I will take a look at him which I don’t mind doing at all!! I decide to run some tests on him and I find the dreaded long string proteins starting to form in his bloodstream. He has definitely been infected by the goo. As for the rest of us, I call everyone over to my medikit and take blood from everyone.

Roland turns out to be infected too. Crash and Roland will be dead in a week if I don’t get to a lab and start doing some serious testing of this shit. How long before we all test positive?

I ask Sykes to find me a fully equipped lab ASAP. I have looked at all the possibilities and decide not to quarantine Roland and Crash. They were infected by the goo, not by each other and I don’t think they will infect anyone else.

Both Sykes and Crash start making frantic calls to people who may be able to loan me a fully equipped lab. Sykes gets hold of a friend called Igor, who says we can use his lab in a disused underground morgue. My kinda place. I say yes immediately and start to make arrangements to move Crash, who is feeling really ill now, and all my medical gear.

8pm, Boat, Dockside

Sykes, Roland, Shen and Louis in attendance.

Louis keeps me informed by radio what’s going on he seems to know all about secure frequencies and stuff. Good job really, I just know how to patch people up and stop 'em dying.

The boat is waiting for them at the right time at the right place. It’s a long sleek black boat, a blockade runner or something. Apparently they are very quick, which will probably come in handy tonight. The Captain has a chat with Sykes and they set off for pier 13 of the bridge (that’s the location of the map co-ordinates we found on the PC in the hunting lodge lab).

10 minutes later the boat is next to the pier and Shen and Roland jump onto its base. It's number 13 out of 26 identical struts, that hold up the bridge.

View of the base of the pier from above.

The water is still over the top of the strut platform and both Shen and Roland are getting their feet slightly wet. There is a ladder going up the side of the pier onto the bridge. Sykes decides to climb up the ladder to check the coast is clear. As he peers over the top he spots a couple of policemen eating donuts and drinking coffee in their car. He quickly ducks out of sight; he is fairly sure they don’t see him anyway. He tells everyone to quieten down and why.

8.15pm, Morgue

As we enter the underground morgue, we can almost taste the smell of death that hangs in the air. Both me and Crash decide we like it down here, it feels safe. I decide to get changed and put my rubber outfit on. Well, a girl has to be able to clean up easily and rubber is so practical, especially in morgues!

Igor lets us into his lab and he gives me a quick tour, before leaving us to go do what he does. I scan the room, everything seems to be here that I need and I start to prep Crash for some serious testing. There is a full medi scanner here so I strip him and place him on it. I will be here a while I reckon.

8.30pm, Pier 13

Shen and Roland finish a circuit of the base. Suddenly Shen reaches down and pulls at a handle he has found at his feet. He then realises it's attached to a hatch that he can’t open it until the water level drops, so everyone goes back onto the boat and waits.

9pm, Bobbing alongside Pier 13

The water has now dropped sufficiently for the hatch to be opened. Shen opens it with Roland covering him. Looking down there is a vertical tunnel with a ladder down one wall. Everything is slimy (isn’t it always?). It's about a 40 foot drop.

Sykes decides he will stay on the boat and act as lookout, again with Louis.

Shen and Roland make their way down the ladder and come to a small chamber over 15 foot across with a door at either end. The doors have windows in them, but with the damp and mould it's impossible to see through the glass.

Roland decides to open the left hand door. Shen covers him. The door actually seems to work like an airlock. Behind the door is a corridor 40 foot long. It’s dark, dank, and covered in mildew and there are puddles all over the floor. They walk down the tunnel and find there’s another door at the end of the corridor with water seeping from the top. Roland and Shen decide not to open this door, turn around and head back to the main chamber.

Shen opens the door on the right hand side of the chamber, with Roland covering him. Behind the door is a 10 foot long corridor with a normal looking door at the end. They both quietly and carefully make their way down to the door. Roland opens the door a tiny bit, with Shen covering him. Again the room is in darkness. Roland and Shen both spot 2 figures, crouching facing the door, one is at 1 o’clock, the other at 11 o’clock.

Roland suddenly does a front roll into the room and Shen opens the door wider while crouching low. The guy who is at 11 shoots first hitting Roland and Shen, however their armour holds and neither of them is injured. Roland shoots at 1 and hits him in the stomach. Unfortunately the bullet falls to the ground. It appears they are armoured too. Shen shoots 11 in the bollox!!!! 11 is not happy at all about that and falls to his side on the floor screaming.

1 shoots at Roland again and again the bullet just ricochets off him. Shen decides to retreat out of the room and 11 takes a shot at him as he starts to leave. Shen's armour holds. Roland shoots at 1 again hitting him square in the chest but his armour holds.

Roland decides enough is enough and shouts at them both "Drop it!" They both shout "Fuck off!!" Then 11 shoots at him and misses.

Roland and 11 shoot at each other at the same time. Roland hits him in the body and blood bursts out across the room splattering the floor and the wall.

11 fires at Shen, who's still backing out of the room, but misses him. Roland shoots at 1 and the bullet bounces off him.

SNIK. 1’s gun jams and Roland shouts "Drop it!" again, which he does. Shen takes the opportunity to kick 11 in the guts while laughing maniacally. He kicks him hard and 11 lies on the ground in the foetal position blood flowing across the floor from both his wounds.

9.15pm, Shooting stops

This page © Greg Aldridge, 17 May 2003