Chapter 17

With that I went back to work on the board and several hours later Dane came in and told me to get some sleep. "You have watch later and I want you alert, not hung over from lack of rest."

During my watch I again saw the panel truck with the seahorse on the side. This time I woke Cain up so he could see it also if they came back. Twenty minutes after he got up it came by again. This time he slumped in his chair as I let him know it was passing and I knew he was checking it out from the astral plane. It wasn't long before he was back and the first thing he said was to start packing.

I went into my room and started to put things into sacs as he woke the others. Soon the armory was packed away, the kitchen was cleared of all eatables and Dane was in the room with me packing things away. It was nearly as smooth as the other time and in not much longer time we had the place emptied, the stuff packed away in the vehicles and were away from there. When they made their next pass, if they did, the house would look like it did on the other two passes.

Blake gave us another address and we each took off. We left in different directions to throw anyone off who might be following us. I was to be the last one in as I knew the least about spotting and losing a tail. They were going to spot for me so I stopped along the way and had breakfast before continuing.

I again missed the place the first time. It was a ratty looking warehouse and I passed it looking for the numbers. I continued down the block and then turned around. Coming back I spotted the correct numbers and pulled behind the place. When he saw who it was Blake had one of the large roll up doors raised enough for me to drive the car in and then he had it lowered. There wasn't much to see. There were scattered remains of boxes and crates and other trash around. There was also a raised section that looked like office space in one corner. Blake motioned me to pull the car over to that section and unload it. After I finished I moved the car so that others could get close to the office section.

"Take the stuff upstairs and find a place to setup. I think one of the rooms was used as a break room so we'll use it as the kitchen. Go ahead and unload what you have and I'll be up shortly with the stuff that I have. When the others get here we'll finish."

I took a couple of my sacs upstairs and then looked around. One of the offices at the end had several large cabinets or shelved work tables in it. I took that room for my stuff and started setting up immediately. With the storage space under the tables I could put the parts away until I needed them and they were still handy at the same time. This was much better than the safe houses we had been using. There I had taken down the closet doors and set them up on boxes to make a work table, here there were tables and storage already set up. There were several com lines in the room as if more than one person had worked here. That was handy for me also. I hooked my Deck into one and the Smart Frame into another. With repeat trips I had the telecoms set up and running when the others arrived.

Helping them unload we started to stow things so they were out of the way yet still close at hand when needed. It took about an hour to put away the same things that had taken us less than twenty minutes to load up.

When we were finished I started fixing something for breakfast for the others. During this time I finally had the chance to asked Cain about his astral projection on the panel truck. "Just what did you see that made us leave in such a hurry?"

"Chummer, it was bad Juju. Those guys were looking for us and knew we were in the area somewhere. I don't know what they had spotted but they were looking. There were three of them in the truck, a Rigger driving, some muscle and a Mage. He was the one looking and somehow you've been throwing him off. He spotted me when I started watching them and we fought for a bit. I took off and lead him to another house in the area. I hope they think that's where we're staying. I wasn't able to stick around to see who they work for or anything like that. Before I had a chance he spotted me."

"We were lucky! If it had been me or Dane on watch he would have spotted us instantly. My fetishes and spell foci would have stood out as would her chrome. As it was you don't have any more chrome on you than a lot of Corp wageslaves and that time of the morning it probably looked like you were just getting ready for work. Other than that I don't know why it was but he didn't zero in on you."

I shivered just thinking of how close we had come to being spotted. "Yeah, I agree," said Blake. "It was close. This isn't the Ritz but it will have to do. Look around and see what else we'll need and we can see about getting it. One thing we'll need is mattresses and possibly beds. Another is a broom to sweep out some of the clutter. What else do we need?"

We discussed our needs for a while and I went back to finish setting up my shop. When it was set up to my likes I started to work on the board as if I was still at the other place. When I looked up again Thunder was standing in the door laughing.

"Day told me ya could work through anythin and now I believe 'em. Dent ya hear us come in? We raised da doors, drove a truck in, unloaded it and even set ya up a bed and ya dent even hear us. Man, when ya work ya really get into it don't ya?"

I looked around and sure enough, they had brought me in a bed and set it up. Some one else was sweeping out the place and Thunder had been watching when I had looked up.

"Well, ah," I stammered, "this is important and I wanted to finish it. Blake needs it for something so I wanted it ready."

"Relax, kid. Ya got ya way o' doing thins and I got mine, Null Pers. I jest looked in to see dat ever thin was ok. Me and my people will be working wid ya on dis now. We gonna take da main floor and be ya errand boys as well as da lookouts. Ya gonna stay up here and finish what ever it is ya're doing and den we gonna snag us a Seoulpa. Day lack to play games wid my people so now it's payback! Come on, it's time to eat."

By then the woman with him had finished sweeping out and was leaving. She turned back and smiled, at least I think it was a smile. Those two large ivory looking tusks made it more of a grimace than a real smile. I thanked her both for the sweeping and for setting up the bed and then followed her out the door and down the corridor to where the kitchen had been set up.

With more people there wasn't enough food to last very long so Dane was in the middle of making up a shopping list for a week. Another Ork was with her increasing the list for the proper amount for everyone.

"Da gonna be ten o' us in and out o' here plus da four o' youse. Dat means 'bout five times as much as ya used to. Dis little place ain't gonna be big enough for all o' us. Why don't we git anudda stove and I'll cook for us and ya can cook up here for youse?"

"Yeah, ok. Why don't I make up a list for us for a week and you do the same for your people? You can make all the purchases at one time and then split the supplies when you get back. You know what your people like to eat and I know what we like. That way we'll both have what we're used to and not get in the way of the other."