<<<18 Mar 2057, 16:02—Shadows of the Underworld >>>

I should know better than to expect anything to go as planned.

Everything started out well enough: I was home enjoying some well-deserved rest when I got a message that Dragon Security had another job. Normally that would not have spurred me to quick action given that we had decided to take a break between runs, but after discovering the source of the call, I immediately caught a semiballistic back to Seattle. No, it wasn't our presidential-candidate patron himself, but it was someone close enough to him that it wouldn't have been wise to decline the invitation.

I arrived back at the office (note to myself: never attempt to play a joke on your fellow teammates by impersonating a pizza deliveryman when your fellow teammates are apt to respond with force to any unknown visitors--especially when those visitors have keys to the office...) to find 'Wraith and Joe already there. Ocelot arrived shortly thereafter, in a very bad mood after having been summoned back from the California Free State and riding his motorcycle for the better part of the day to arrive back in time. Following a lengthy discussion regarding the wisdom of 'Wraith's accepting meets for us in New York City without our prior knowledge, we boarded a plane for that city and prepared to meet up with our employer.

The meet was set for a very nice restaurant at the top of the Empire State Building. Security was quite tight, necessitating our leaving our artillery locked up with the helpful security staff. None of us was pleased about that development, but once again given our employer's backing, we agreed to it. After all, if we lose our gear due to sloppy handling when working for Dunkelzahn, I imagine that he can afford to replace it.

We didn't even get a chance to have dinner before things started going awry. Seated in a small private dining room, we were startled when the door flew open and several armed people entered, ordering us to remain still and not try anything untoward. As we had no weapons of our own, we allowed ourselves to be herded out into the main dining room with the rest of the restaurant's patrons. Before long, we discovered (because they certainly weren't doing anything to keep it a secret) that our captors belonged to some sort of insane religious organisation whose members worshipped Dunkelzahn. After spouting "scriptures" at us for awhile from their holy texts, they informed us that they planned to hold us hostage until Dunkelzahn himself came to listen to them, show them the way, lead them into the next millenium, or whatever bloody thing they had on their addled minds. Oh, yes: they also planned to kill the evil corporate pawns who were holding back Dunkelzahn's shiny happy future. This, of course, referred to us and our fellow hostages.

Fortunately, our erstwhile employer was not without her own plans; it turned out that she is Dunkelzahn's campaign manager for New York, and was in contact with him and his people through her headware radio. At that point, our job changed. She offered us additional recompense if we could manage to defuse the situation (not to mention the bombs hidden 15 floors below us), since a large number of dead corporate higher-ups would not bode well for Dunkelzahn's campaign. We agreed, although I couldn't help but attempt to attach one condition to our agreement (to which my friends agreed enthusiastically): if we were successful, our payment would be delivered in person by Dunkelzahn himself. I don't think he was thrilled with the condition, but he agreed to it. If we can manage to pull this off, I'll finally get my wish: to meet the Big D in person. 'Wraith and Joe seem to be pleased about this prospect as well, although Ocelot seems somewhat less so. At this point I must honestly say that I don't care. If he doesn't want to meet the Dragon, he doesn't have to come along.

Of course, the whole thing might not be as easy as it sounds. We managed, with the aid of some illusions cast by a couple of magically active fellow hostages, to get out of the restaurant and even to obtain a weapon, but we're still deciding what to do next. They took most of my magical foci (leaving me with only my Levitate and Bladesharp spell locks and one power focus they didn't find) and most of the remainder of our weapons. We've only got somewhat less than an hour to take care of the situation, or the bombs will detonate and blow the top floors off the Empire State Building.

I suppose if it was easy, though, anyone could do it.