Chapter 11

The new safe house wasn't as nice as the one we had in Tacoma. This one was in the Kent sector of Renton. There are some super nice places in Renton but this was on the lower edge of Middle Class. It took me about an hour to get all set up. I took over one of the bedrooms for my shop, work center and to sleep. Dane took the master bedroom so she would have a bathroom to herself and the other two shared a room.

On the way over Dane told me that they had hit both of the Alan Manor places but someone had been there ahead of them. The hiding places had been found in both of them also.

I pulled up the info that the Smart Frame had already logged on Allen House and there was an address listed. I started the Frame working on anything else it could find on that name and gave what I had to the others. I told them that they should hit the place right now without waiting. Whoever was looking for us and whoever had hit the three places before us might not know about this one yet. The sooner they looked through it the better. I had to talk a bit but they finally agreed and took off.

Cain again called up the Hearth spirit to stay with me. She roamed about looking over the house and what she could see looking outside. I thanked her for all of her assistance earlier and she seemed pleased that I would take the bother. I again propped chairs under the doorknobs and started checking over more of the chips from the first hiding place. I found nothing of interest except on one was the name Jarred Windsong and a number. I made note of it and then started to go through the chips from the second place.

Some of the info was a duplicate of stuff I had seen before and some was different. One chip was nothing but names and numbers. A few of them looked familiar but I couldn't place them. Others I had no idea as to who they were. I printed up a hard copy so that the others could look it over when they got back and then started going over the program chips again.

I finished the one I had been working on earlier and had just completed another one when I heard the door rattle. Arming myself I checked it out but it was just the others returning. I should have known it was them as Amanda, the Hearth spirit, had not said anything.

They came in laughing and Blake thanked me for insisting they go when they did. Just as they were leaving another car pulled up and several people got out. That was the second location we had encountered someone doing that. Blake had circled the block and written down the license number from the car they were driving.

"Think you can find out who this belongs to?" he asked.

"Shouldn't be much of a problem. I can back door Lone Star and run it from there. It'll look normal that way. Did you find anything else?"

"More chips, more credsticks, another telecom and more weapons. We are going to have to get rid of some of these weapons. We have too many."

"Call Eddie. I'll bet he could take them off your hands and at a fair price. You've dealt with him before. Think you can trust him?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said after a moment's hesitation, "I don't think that's a problem."

He brought in the two bags of weapons and things they had taken from the seven that had hit the safe house. After looking them over I made a couple of suggestions.

"All of these weapons have silencers. I think we should swap barrels with our weapons and keep the silencers that fit our weapons. Also as Cain and I have H&Ks I suggest you two swap and take H&Ks also. That way we have the same type weapon and the magazines will all fit. Could save some confusion in a pinch."

"Good idea," said Blake. "Dane, you're our fighter and should know weapons the best. Pick the best ones for you and me and check over the barrels on the others. You handle the swaps and let me know when you're through."

I started to slot the credsticks and had a hard copy made on each one. I then started to go through the other papers and things that they had taken from the bodies. Two of the guys were amateurs, they had their company id with them from the Aztechnology Complex. We now knew who one of the players was. I showed the stuff to Blake.

"Want to make a 911 call? We could let Lone Star know about the bodies in the old safe house and if you make it from one of the wristcoms they can't trace it. Might cause some problems for Aztech. Every little bit helps," I said with a grin.

Blake looked at me funny expression on his face and then started to grin also. He made the call.

With them back I said good night and sacked out. Cain woke me for my turn on watch. Just after daylight I brewed a fresh pot of soykaf and took it in to the others. When I entered Dane's room I was humming a tune so she would know it was me. She was turned away from me and most of the covers were off of her.

"Oh, yes, I do like your pajamas," I said softly as I left.

"Thank you," she replied just as softly. If I had known she was awake I wouldn't have said anything.

I returned to the kitchen and began to fix breakfast. It took a little longer this time as I didn't know where everything was and had to look for it. Cain looked like he was still asleep when he came staggering into the kitchen. Dane looked at me when she came in and smiled, I blushed.

After eating Cain went back to bed and I returned to my room and started to check over the Frame and see what had turned up. There was nothing earthshaking so I changed the program and started to search for Alaric Strass. I then got out the last of the hidden chips and began to check over them. Again several were repeats of things that I already had but some had other bits of information we might be able to use.

One was a list of 'fixers' with numbers and a list of the groups that he had hired through each of them. There were nine 'fixers' and twenty-two different groups. Only a few of them I had ever heard about. I made a hard copy of it for the others and that made me think of the earlier list I had made for them. I took the two lists out to where Blake and Dane were and showed them.