April 20-21, 2097
Friday, I had a sit-down with Vanya at the office to talk about that dragon scale I found during the PanGen heist. It's ancient—several million years old—and doesn’t match any known living dragon. That alone makes it fascinating. Vanya’s intrigued, but she’s not exactly a ritual specialist. She’s looking into a way I can strengthen my draconic bond through some kind of ritual, but it’ll take some research, and she’ll probably need to call in a favor from a friend. Could be something big if it works.
Saturday night, I spent some time with Evie. Another party at Serj’s place—his rooftop pad in Ironview is becoming a regular hangout for us. Evie’s excited about joining me in Hawaii for a few days during the tour, but we won’t see each other much until then. No big deal, though—we’ve got VR for that. Long-distance in 2097 isn’t like it was in the age of sail or anything.
Temoc made an appearance at the party, which was kind of surprising. I sent him the invite on the off chance he might show up. And he did. Even Jaguar adepts need to unwind, I guess. Halo showed up too, with Slag and Blink as her bodyguards, and Eclipse and Tag on overwatch. She ended up doing an impromptu concert at Serj’s place. No simsense, no VR—just pure music, raw and live. We even cut the Matrix feed, so nothing got streamed. Everyone signed an NDA or left, and no one left. It was... magical, for lack of a better word. I’m more convinced than ever she’s Awakened.
She capped off the night by unfurling her wings and leaping off the roof. Pretty dramatic, but then again, she can fly, so why not?
I also had a chance to introduce Temoc to Silvia McKay, Ironview’s representative on the Seattle Council. I’ve got this vague plan of trying to integrate Ironview with the new Aztechnology waterfront district. It’s still in the early stages, but there’s potential there. We also talked about getting Lone Star to step up patrols and maybe deal with the gang crime issue. We’ll see how far that goes.
Sunday morning started early. I left for the airport, but on the way, one of my watchdog sprites pinged me. A DHL (Saeder-Krupp-owned, of course) delivery man was trying to get into my building to deliver a package to Phillip Harrowfield. I wasn’t home, so I got Evie to let him in. The package turned out to be a cheap commlink. Evie powered it up and left it in my apartment for me.
That’s when I got a call from an AI calling itself "Pandora." Its avatar was this mimic chest—like something out of a DnD game. Pandora had been tracking Wizkid, and it seemed pretty convinced that Wiz was a living creature. It’s not, but I’ve been planting subtle clues in the Matrix to keep my technomancer side hidden, so the AI’s belief worked in my favor. We had a chat about the PanGen heist—traded some insults, of course, and made a few threats. Pandora wasn’t too happy about us killing a scientist during the job. Said it was bad for business. In the end, it transferred 20k nuyen, more as a goodwill gesture than anything else. It wants the money put to use to make life miserable for Provolution.
We flew out to Edmonton before noon. The flight itself was smooth, despite some bad weather and storm spirits on the Edmonton side of the mountains. We’re all here—about 80-odd people, Halo, her team, and all our gear. During the flight, I had an idea. Halo’s “intimate concert” concept could be a real moneymaker. What if she repeated that at select locations, selling maybe 200 tickets for an exclusive IRL-only experience? I worked on monetizing it for my benefit, and after some back-and-forth involving JJ, upper management, Halo, and finally Zara Coatl, Phillip Harrowfield walked away 500k nuyen richer. First thing I did? Paid off my bank loan and covered the redecorators. Now I’ve got 250k left in the bank. Not bad for a day’s work.
Once we landed, we met up with Emily Sinclair, the Mountie police captain in charge of security for the Edmonton event. She’s not Lone Star—she’s federal UCAS, which makes her a bit more legit in my book.
Halo had other plans, though. She took us out to the outskirts of Edmonton to her old home, now abandoned. The place had a heavy vibe, like a lot of unresolved memories. Vanya ended up setting it on fire. I didn’t stop her. It seemed like something Halo needed, and honestly, burning that place down felt like it was closing a chapter.
After that, we hit up an old-school pub, The Dubliner, to unwind. Drinks, laughs, a little more business talk. We finished the night with a more private affair at the hotel. Tomorrow, we’re heading out to meet with representatives from the Cree Nation. And the day after that? The concert. Halo’s return to her hometown.
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