#Around the block they go

Learning that one of Leandro’s enemies—an EVO Corporation wage-mage named Brian—moonlighted at a greasy BBQ joint not too far from where the mafioso was murdered, the runners decided to pay him a visit. On the bus ride over Nyx pulled news stories about organized crime in the southern Metroplex; the party had previously operated almost exclusively Downtown and in the northern districts so the street politics of Tacoma, Renton, and Puyallup were still new to them.

It looked like the Yakuza and Mafia had an uneasy—and unreliable—understanding, where the former handled street operations and the latter more high-class pursuits, as a way to keep all-out war from boiling up. The Seoulpa Rings, trying to muscle their way in, have done so in a very heavy and public way, often with extreme shows of violence. All of this was happening in the southern districts however, far from the sleepy bedroom community of Renton. Had some of Leandro’s business followed him, or was this in all reality a random assault that happened to catch a powerful underworld figure?

Turning their collars high against the early-January storms, they found Brian relaxing in front of a plate of brisket, keeping guard over a door leading to the restaurant’s back room. It didn’t take much convincing for him to divulge that there was no love lost between he and Leandro—though he did allude that Leandro’s sister may have it out for him—and that he had no idea about the murder. “Yeah the guy was an asshole, but not a ’murder in cold blood” kind of asshole,“ he quipped. He pointed out that if the runners were on the mob payroll things could get very dicey very quickly, and that there were safer organizations to tie oneself to. He all but admitted that he was on the Yakuza payroll, and that the BBQ joint was merely a front for a chop shop.

Agreeing that he likely had nothing to do with the murder, the team were ready to leave when they decided to run other leads past him. He cocked his head when they showed him a picture of Anna—she and “her boyfriend” had been in the shop a few weeks prior. He was getting some chrome put in his hands and she was there to drive him home afterward. Hacking the medical computer and pulling patient files, Nyx was able to get an aproxomate location for Dimitri, near a shopping center on the border between Renton and Auburn.

The party thanked the double-dipping corp man and hopped on a late bus heading south, when Cee’s comlink rang again. It was Georgia, with a time-sensitive job.

There had been a kidnapping.