| Chapter 2
Jacques stood on the second last stair, diverting his attention between upstairs, and here, down in the basement, where Jean-Paul was speaking. A solid man, short, but thick like a welsh miner, Jacques shifted his weight and felt his ceramic bone lacing grind his joints. He would need to get that arthritic treatment again, soon. Jacques, known to the other people in the room as Jamon, had been living with bone lacing for a number of years. Originally it had been aluminium lacing, but that sets off modern metal detectors, and so he had instead moved to ceramic lacing when it had become available on his employment package. Unfortunately, the years the cybernetic lacing had been in his body had quickened the onset of arthritis. He was now undergoing regular treatment for it, which freed the use of his joints and slowed the problem, but one day he knew he would need to undergo surgery to remove the lacing permanently, and then spend some rejuvenation time in one of the new gene tanks. It would get him back ten of his years, and full mobility again, they said. No more need for doctors. A good thing. Jamon believed them...Cross Biotech Doctors were some of the best in the world, and certainly for Seraphim operatives they did their best work. After all, they knew Seraphim looked in as much as out. Jamon was Jean-Paul's street man. Jean-Paul was very suited towards gathering intelligence on the political and high level corporate side of things, but Jamon knew how the street operated, and it was he who had put this team together for Jean-Paul. Perhaps 'team' was stretching it, though. Before tonight, he didn’t believe any member of the group had more than a passing acquaintance or knowledge of any other member. Jamon reflected on that. On one hand, it meant that group affiliations with other entities were non-existent, it was unlikely any of these people were on regular contracts, and thus, a danger to operational security. On the other hand, they didn’t know each other and hadn’t worked together. They probably trusted each other less than they trusted Jean-Paul to cut them a straight deal. Which was probably a good stance to take. The decker worried him the most. It seemed to Jamon that this 'Katral' person was not exactly verse to the corporate culture, nor was he used to performing tasks onsite, the most physically dangerous, but matrix-side easier and the most rewarding of hacking jobs. There were not many high profile deckers available here in Denver. An oddity, because Denver was the home of the Nexus. While Jamon thought about this, and decided on odds of success, Jean-Paul was wrapping up. "And this is what you need to install into Junction Box 17." Jean-Paul showed them the datatap and cellular transmitter. It was of Novatech design, Jean-Paul was not incompetent enough to use a Cross Advanced Electronics model, which while more compact, would have been an unnecessary risk. "What do you think?" Jean-Paul asked Jamon from the back seat, after the meet. Jamon glanced in the rearview, back at his boss. "I think perhaps, I give them a 40 percent chance of success" the man replied in French-Quebecois. "Poor odds, don’t you think?" "Yes, but they not very experienced, and they are also new to each other. We will see, perhaps I am wrong. But this is simply a test mission, correct?" "Yes, that is true. Will you be able to keep an eye on them at all?" Jean-Paul asked, as he took out his cellular and turned it back on, now that they were a safe distance from the Warrens. One had to assume you were being watched, or tracked, and he'd just as soon had preferred anyone else not to have known about his trips into the Warrens of Denver. "Non. I must attend to the Father. We will be explaining the modifications to be done during the refurbishment." replied Jamon. "I will ask l'Ours, then." |