Chapter 31

The rest of that day and Friday we stayed put and listened to the trid news. We each contacted a couple of friends during that time to see what rumbles could be heard closer to the ground. Nothing was going around which didn't seem likely. It wasn't until early Saturday morning that we started to get some nibbles. One of the lookouts called in to report a van cruising the area. We had placed cameras on each corner of the building to increase the surveillance and it was the soldier assigned to watch over them who reported. As the van passed the next time we had been awakened, were up and watching as the camera zoomed in as tight as it could to see how many people were present. Cain was feeling them out as well when the van exploded.

Returning from his astral projection Cain smiled and said, "They were looking for us. There was a Shaman in the vehicle who was looking through the building. He was looking up not down so I don't think he spotted us. While he was so busy looking I followed his trail into the van and exploded one of his spell foci."

"The only problem is that whoever sent them out will know we're in the vicinity. We need to check over the van if we can," exclaimed Blake. "Thunder, can you have a couple of your people check the van? Tell them to try to appear like they're just interested people from the warehouse."

"Yo, got it!" he called back.

From the cameras we watched as people from several of the warehouses went over to see what had happened. One of the persons inside was still alive and an ambulance was called for. One of our guys copied down something from his wrist and then looked around the inside of the van.

When he got back he told us there were four people inside. There was also a large number of weapons and things. What he had copied down was a number off of a 'Doc Wagon' id bracelet. The bracelet appeared to have been broken in the explosion is why the 'Doc Wagon' wasn't already there.

I took the number and returned to my room. Jacking into my Deck I ran over to the office of the Seattle Doc Wagon and rifled their files. The number was one of about twenty belonging to a Corporate account. The Corp? Togiwara, of course! I grabbed all twenty and pulled back.

From there I slipped into Togiwara and pulled up the listing of all employees and their work assignments. After making a copy of that I jacked out.

Sticking the chip into the computer I pulled up the files from Doc Wagon and made a hard copy of each one. Feeding the second chip in I asked the computer to locate and list the work assignments for the twenty individuals covered by this account. In just moments I had a second printout showing them to be assigned to R&D as Security Specialists.

Taking the printouts I returned to the monitor room where I thought the others would still be. When I walked in Blake motioned me over. "You missed something. Toad, enhance and play back that last part."

While I had been gone a tow truck had arrived to haul the van away when all of the bodies had been removed. Lone Star was on the scene and directing the others away. As the tow truck turned the van around we could see the faint image of something on the other side of the van. Enhanced it appeared to be a seahorse.

"They did a cheap paint job to change the appearance of the van. The heat from the explosion brought the darker color of the seahorse through the newer, lighter colored paint. These are the same people who you spotted at the old safe house."

"Yeah, and look here. They're from Togiwara. Here's a list of twenty special security people that work for Nogumi. We know for certain that one of them was inside, probably all four of them were members of the team," I said, giving Blake the list of the security guards. It had a picture, full description, body type, blood type and other pertinent medical information as well as the parent company who held the account. All listed to Togiwara.