Mission 5a - i-Sexbot

Sam responds to Tammy, "We destroyed all but one of them. But it just disappeared from matrix space. It may have hidden itself. Let us see if we can find it. If we are not able to find it, then it must have turned off its wireless. In that case, it won't be broadcasting back, at least."
"Emiko, help me look for the drone icon. Tetsu, do you think you can get a look outside the car somehow?"

Sam and Bunta perform matrix searches, looking for hidden icons. (Bunta 3 hits, Sam 5 hits)

"I can not find the drone in matrix space," Sam reports to Tammy. "And Tetsu does not see it out the window. It seems like it is safe to stop. Maybe we can find it while you patch the tire. It should not be able to transmit our location if it is turned off, at least. I will continue to try to disable the rigger's RCC."

Sam and Bunta launch a paper airplane at the RCC. (6 hits on data spike)

Emiko replies, “I’m on it Sam,” and uses her commlink to look for the icon

Matrix perception: 6 hits

Emiko unbuckles, opens the van door, and jumps out. “Guys, I’m going to search under the van,” and Emiko immediately gets down on her belly, rolls over, and slides headfirst under the van.

“Where are you, you flying piece of trash?”

Perception: 3 hits

Sam unbuckles his seatbelt, and gets out of the car. He considers that the last place Emiko saw the drone was near one of the wheels, and then it suddenly shut off. So, it is probably still somewhere near that wheel.

He also realizes that he doesn't know that much about cars, and Tammy probably has better knowledge of various hidey holes where a small drone might hide on the exterior of a car.

"Do you have any suggestions for where we should try looking?" Sam asks Tammy. "My first guess is above the wheel. Do you have a better idea?"

If Tammy has a better idea, Sam searches where she directs. Otherwise, he searches above the wheel.

He does his best to get down on the ground and squeeze under the car enough to get a good look above the wheel, using his commlink as a flashlight. (3 hits)

Sam unbuckles his seatbelt, and gets out of the car. He considers that the last place Emiko saw the drone was near one of the wheels, and then it suddenly shut off. So, it is probably still somewhere near that wheel.

He also realizes that he doesn't know that much about cars, and Tammy probably has better knowledge of various hidey holes where a small drone might hide on the exterior of a car.

"Do you have any suggestions for where we should try looking?" Sam asks Tammy. "My first guess is above the wheel. Do you have a better idea?"

If Tammy has a better idea, Sam searches where she directs. Otherwise, he searches above the wheel.

He does his best to get down on the ground and squeeze under the car enough to get a good look above the wheel, using his commlink as a flashlight. (3 hits)

Sam tosses the drone to Tetsu.
"Break that," he says.

Then he reboots Emiko's deck.

Emiko hears that they found the hidden drone so she pulls herself out from underneath the van and brushes off the debris she picked up from the ground.

“I’m not an auto mechanic but I’m guessing that tire is not in good shape,” Emiko says while pointing to the tire the drones were slashing at. Though she knows she was stating the obvious, Emiko was hoping to lighten the stressful mood with a bit of humor. Then, more seriously, she says, “but like Tammy said, we need to get somewhere safe and patch the tire. Sam, can you see if the cars are heading back to us now?”

"I thought this was our safe place," Sam says, looking around. "They have turned off all of their wireless transmissions. So I will not be able to locate them in the matrix. We should also turn off our wireless devices." He flips off all of his wireless devices, and hands Emiko's deck back to her.

"Unless you have some way of getting a camera in the air, we will not be able to locate the other car." Sam finishes.

"How long will it take you to patch the tire?" he asks Tammy.

Sam tries both locks on the case. When neither opens, he sets both combinations to 000 and tries again. When neither opens, he calls Eula down.
"Change the combination by moving up one value at a time. Each time to raise the value, try to release. If it opens, start over with the other lock. Once both locks open, let me know," he instructs Eula.

"That should take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour," he tells Tetsu. "If you want to wait, we can split the loot. Or, I can wire you your share once we fence it."

Sam turns his wireless back on, peels off his armor jacket and his mask, and tends to his wounds with his medkit. (4 hits, 2 boxes healed)

He checks the news to see if Michiko made it to the factory, and if the police raided it. (Matrix search 4 hits)

Finally, while Eula works on getting the case open, Sam pulls out his toolkit and gets to work fixing his deck.(1 box fixed in an hour)

Emiko reflects on travesty she’s seen, from meeting Princess Miyu to seeing all the women at the factory, and is reminded how she was used by her father. Emiko never thought of what her father made her do as bad but now she is beginning to wonder if she was slightly used. “I wasn’t used anywhere as bad as these poor women,” Emiko thinks.

“I’m not going to wait, you can wire me my share. I’m going to go home, peel out of these clothes, and take a long, hot bath.”

Then Emiko remembers having to leave her car near the warehouse. She messages it to return to her apartment and says, “I guess I’ll call for a ride home tonight.”

She wishes Sam, Tetsu, and Tammy a good night and heads out. She thinks about calling Setsuko but decides she would prefer to be alone.

Tetsu isn't interested in trying to fence the chips on his own, so he agrees to get his share sent to him when they get sold. He then hails a taxi and disappears into the stormy night.

It takes Eula a surprisingly short amount of time to brute force her way through the combination which turns out to be 321 123. The locks click up and she alerts Sam that the job is completed. The interior of the suitcase is padded with small compartments for hundreds of microchips, 30 of which contain what you hope are the pilot chips you came looking for.

From his research, Sam knows that each chip is worth about ¥20,000. He figures that if he's lucky a fence will pay about half that, so all told the score is worth about ¥300,000 if they're all sold. Not a bad pay day by any stretch of the imagination, though Sam already has plans for at least one of the chips. Time to give Eula an upgrade.

Satisfied with a successful run, Sam closes the biefcase and takes it up to his room with him. He collapses onto his bed and quickly falls asleep.