It was a very cold night, I was standing there, in the rain, all alone, didn't expect a lot to happen, the rain didn't bother me much, it was just to damn quiet. Then this girl came running from nowhere, her clothes were torn and there was blood all over her, her eyes wide open, it almost was as if her eyes were screaming, it was Lisa's friend, she collapsed in front of me, she was missing her right lower arm, it was torn-off judging the wound, I searched the shadows for movement, she couldn't have traced me down in this condition, a very big figure came walking toward me, horned and all, most people start to run in these situations, I have the experience that the bigger the man the better his temper, he had an arm in his hand........, I pulled my Max Power, he didn't seem to be impressed. But he didn't know I always loaded APDS, two shots, his face showed he could feel the pain, again two shots, he collapsed....., I did a short search on the two corpses, I had to act quick, this was downtown, the Stars would show-up soon. The big guy had a nice coat, to bad it was that big.....

"Drop the gun!"
"OK, eazy"
"move away from the bodies"

"you don't look like Stars"
"I'm sorry 'bout that, now fucking move"
"I'm movin' 'llright"

"They're both dead"
"I could have told ya that"
"you shut da fuck up"

    They were definitely not Lone Star, two guys, Mafia muscle type o' guys, I could only hope something would distract them, but nothing did, then we heard the sirens, nice timing those guys have, the muscles were distracted just long enough for me to pull my other Max Power and level them both, I got this cheap version of the cheaper version of those Wired Reflexes, I hopped on my bike and was far away within minutes, It didn't make much sense, Lisa's friend, the Troll, the two Mafia guys, two days and I already killed three people and lost a gun....., I decided to go back a few hours later, the Stars cleaned up pretty good, still a lot of blood, but not enough to give away what happened, I searched the street maybe they missed a spot, and yes there it was, blood, the rain had washed away most of it, I think it was from the ripped-off arm, I traced the trail back to an alley, pretty messy. I began to search every inch, and there it was, an optical chip, she had probably dropped it when her arm was ripped-off, makes me feel sick, thinking about Lisa's friend, the image of her running toward me was carved into my memory.

"Jacky, I have something"
"where can we meet?"
"somewhere where they serve nice breakfast"

"You remember that Italian place?"
"Where they serve the godly espresso? yes I remember"
"OK, see ya there"

"heard anything from the others?"
"not yet, they are still at there posts I guess"
"heh, guess again, maybe Flesh is"

     Jacky was there when I arrived, he didn't look that good, I told him more or less what happened, he had a new gun for me, with lasersight...., he asked me for the chip, she came runnin' to me, so I didn't hand it over, I decided that I wanted to check it myself first, I needed to wait till five, Charlie's opens at five, and I needed a computer to check the chip. Coffin hotels make me feel like I'm a looser, but it's save than the streets, most of the time anyway, they sealed my coffin once, I lost a fight that I could have won and the people who placed a bet on me weren't really happy, Max got me outa there just in time, but the streets aren't any better, happened to me more than once, bored Stars, that kick yer live outa ya, streetgangs, and the night beings, the ones that only come out at night and don't die when you shoot them, they smile, they just smile......, sometimes you met other runners, that's always good, runners on the street help eachother, that's good about the streets, the good people........