Under the bright glare of the magnifier-lamp workstation Kozmo stares intently at a circuit board looking for any defects or breaks in the intricate weave of printed circuit lines and solder points. Hearing a soft beeping in the background he looks up and turns turns around still holding the board. He sees the clock on the wall flashing 4:00 a.m., he's been at this all night, the damned remote camera board he scrounged up is a dud. There's a break on the board somewhere, but he's been at this too long. Time for some rest. He puts his tools and supplies away in the workshop. He walks over to the computer on the table in the corner. Kozmo got the computer for his uncle to update his store records and keep better track of the store business. After a month or so Kozmo found it outside in the trash. When he asked his uncle why it was in the dumpster he was given a grumbling response in Russian, something about a ghost in the machine. Now Kozmo uses it to find parts dealers and electronics on the matrix.

As he sits down to the computer he notices a message from his friend Digit, who's probably been up all night surfing the matrix. Kozmo bangs out a quick reply and hits send. Seconds later he receives an instant message from Digit.

"Hey chummer, what are you doing up?" Digit asks. Not surprised that Digit is still up and online, Kozmo decides to reply.

"Hey omae, I'm burning the midnight oil...as always?" Kozmo says.

"What's going on? Big job?" inquires Digit.

"Yeah, my team just got an 'office' together. I'm supposed to be rigging it up with some security. Now that the cred is starting flow in pretty regular we have to be more careful with our business." Writes Kozmo.

"No kidding, sounds like things are working out for you in your new line of work." Says Digit.

"Yeah, its working out well. Actually, the team is starting to pull in work from a lot of different areas. I kind of felt like I was having to bring in the first few jobs to get things going. Seems like I'm the only guy in the group with many street contacts. I gotta say having a big bro like Ivan comes in handy. This last mission we did for one of the team members though." Writes Kozmo.

"How did that work out, sometimes 'working' for an acquaintance can be tricky" writes Digit.

"It worked well. That tribal I work with was doing some sort of initiation, I guess into a hunting group or something. Anyway, she's supposed to hunt down a vampire to get into this group and she wanted us to help her." Writes Kozmo.

"Whoa! Vampires! No way..." says Digit.

"Hold up omae. They're all cool and neat on the trid in bad movies, but for real they are bad fraggin' drek. On top of the super-senses and regeneration thing and what ever else, these things normally run in groups...so you'll never really find just one...which makes hunting one a job for a lot of people. Somehow Arrow convinces us to do this. Actually, 'us' is me and that pointdexter guy Titus. He's a little geeky, but his head is screwed on straight. Boomer, the big fraggin' troll is fine with the job because he can just blow the shit out of these things and the ork, Fifi, she's some sort of hunter too. I don't know, those three were in it partially for the thrill. I like the thrill of getting away from Lonestar, stickin' it to the corps, or boosting some chumps wheels, but when something wants to eat me...well, that's a little different. Anyway, there's a standing bounty on these things and its some decent cred, so I'm in for it. Not to mention, I give these guys a tough time about money, but we've been through enough that I'll be there when any of them needs someone to cover their back...I just like to bust there balls on it because some of them were a little to eager to become chummers right away and I think we should all be careful because damn...we're criminals." Writes Kozmo.

"So what did you do? You ain't no hunter omae, you a straight up city-boy :), the only thing you've ever hunted is a big bag of pretzels in a Stuffer shack " says Digit.

"Very funny chummm-p. Yeah, the best part is that Arrow says our best bet is this group of these pseudo-vampire things that live out in the tribal lands. Oh yeah, and they're in the middle of this cycle where they get ravenous and their powers peak...it's all good. So we get whatever gear people need and pack into our 'team' van and drive up to the tribal lands under the cover that we're going hunting. We all look completely out of place in our longcoats, but the hunting cover gets us over the border with our gear. Once we get up to where these things live Arrow decides to look around and try to find a guide who can tell her where to find these things. Meanwhile Boomer and Fifi are drinking it up in a bar, me and Titus are taking it easy in our motel room. If we know one thing its that city boys needed to stay out of the way. So Arrow comes back with the location of these things and the next morning we get some breakfast before heading out. When Fifi shows up we find out she's had this dream where she's running through the woods and she comes across a woman in a stream...and she rips the woman's head off and eats her. Its all good." writes Kozmo.

"Whoa! Did you guys have to geek her write there or what? This sounds totally like a bad horror movie!" writes Digit.

"No we didn't have to geek Fifi in the restaurant, come on Digit. It did creep us out a bit though. Anyway, we all pack in the van and start driving into the woods. There's lots of hunters up there this time of the year. We get close to the area these vampire things are and pull off the road. We start looking around the area. Basically, its Fifi, Boomer, Titus, and I trying not to make too much noise while Arrow tracks these beasties. After we've been walking around most of the day, we come across a stream...and we find the dead body of a woman who's head has been ripped off and she's been eaten by some beast. Oh yeah...we're lovin' this job. So we're all freaked out a little bit, but we figure at least we know these things are around. We decide to set up an ambush for the thing that killed the woman. It actually looks like a small one...which is fine by me. We headed back to the van to get some food and rest, we meet up with some tribals at the van who are checking us out to make sure we weren't the ones who killed the woman. We traded some attitude, but they left us alone. Finally we tromp back out into the woods and set up the ambush. We put Arrow into a clearing as bait while the rest of us watched. I tell you that was the longest night I've had since that time I spent up the tree spying on that corp exec for his wife. Except this night was cold and we come up with nothin'. All night and we never saw anything. Come early morning though and we hear this fluster of gun fire not too far from us. We start running towards the shooting, which is pretty erratic, finally we get close and Arrow holds us up to be cautious. We move ahead and find a clearing where there is a hunting party totally slaughtered and mutilated. Looks like these beasties got to them. Arrow tracks the things away from the site and it looks like they're pretty smart. They attack as a pack and escape by covering their tracks. Arrow is able to track the beasts back to a cave in a mountain." Writes Kozmo.

"Omae, tell me you didn't go in!" interrupts Digit.

"Would I be here to write this if I had?" replies Kozmo, "A couple people wanted to go in, but I was definitely NOT. My idea was to rig up a big bomb and chuck it down there and go in later, but that idea was not taken well. I thought we should attack these things when they came out, but we decided that if the beasts got wind of us that they would just be able to wipe us out in a one-on-one situation. So we headed back to the van and actually we found tracks around our van too. So we decide to set up another ambush at our van. We take the camo off the dead hunters we found and used some of their equipment to set up in the trees around our van." Writes Kozmo.

"Dead guys clothes..." says Digit.

"Hey, you had to be there. We climb up into the trees and wait for these things that night. It's another long night, but after a while I see one slink up to the van and check it out. It doesn't seem interested though because it can sense there's nothing in there. So after it leaves, Titus steps up and offers himself as bait in the van. That guy had some giant brass ones to decide to do that...although I think we all overestimated the van's ability to provide safety. So Titus climbs down from his tree and gets in the van. He turns on the radio and makes some noise. After a little while these things come back. This time they are definitely interested. Its not too long that we've got a whole pack of them surrounding our van. Then they strike and it was fraggin' unreal! These things are fast and in a few seconds they swarm the van. One of them rips the back door straight off its hinges and throws it into the woods...this is an ARMORED van! Luckily Fifi knocks out a whole bunch with some wiz spell she's got. This is good because now we only have to worry about a few that are going to eat Titus. Arrow takes one out with her shotgun, null sheen. One of these things is already in the van after Titus and I almost blew it. My first shot missed, but luckily Titus was able to hold it off for another second and the next shot I got at it blew right through its head dropping it in the van. Meanwhile Boomer is picking off the ones Fifi knocked out. After my first shot missed, one of these things starts coming after me and is climbing up the tree pretty fast. Arrow slows it down and I take a couple shots at it, but I also have to keep an eye on Titus because I'm the only one with a clear shot on anything going into the van after him. Actually for the first time one of our plans went off almost as we planned it. The way we were set up each of us could cover someone. Boomer could cover Fifi, Arrow could cover me, and I could cover Titus. Anyway, we just start taking these things out one by one. Titus manages to get out of the van and has another close call before we can finish these things off. Like I said, we all covered each other so in the end I think the plan went off well." writes Kozmo.

"Whoa...you getting to be some kind of wiz bad ass with that piece you got? Sounds like you and your crew are getting to be decent at this aren't you?" asks Digit.

"I'd like to think we can handle ourselves now. I think we're working as a team now. We're starting to get to understand each other. Anyway, we clean up the van and Arrow needs the beast's heads to show that we killed them so we collect them all up. Then we pack up and head home. Arrow gets the bounty on these things and in the end we all picked up some nice cred. I gave Arrow some grief about this being an initiation for her and not really a job and she actually kicked in some extra cred for the rest of us out of her share. I feel kind of bad about hassling her though. I'll actually use the extra cred I got on the security I'm putting together for the 'office'." Writes Kozmo.

"Yeah, sounds like if you keep up this bad-ass criminal thing for too long they'll get sick of it." Writes Digit, "I think you're right in keeping a little distance from these guys, but don't overdo it, ok." writes Digit.

"I know what you mean. I just want to keep it business-like until I can really trust everyone. Anyway, I gotta get outta hear omae. The boss-man is going to be in soon to open the shop and I need to be gone by then. Otherwise I'll be pulling a shift tonight instead of hitting the clubs and there's a new DJ in town who's going to be spinning at Digital Ducats. You should check it out if you get a chance, I hear the guy is wiz." Writes Kozmo.

"Later omae, keep it real." replies Digit.

With that Kozmo shuts down the computer. He leans back far in his chair, reaching his arms up and stretching. Kozmo gets up and heads toward the back door of the shop. He stops momentarily to make sure nothing is out of place, the clock on the wall reads 5:00 a.m., he turns out the lights and slips out the back door. As he enters the alley the cool early morning air rushes over him. He feels momentarily refreshed by the air. He looks down both directions of the alley behind the shop. No one about. He straddles the seat of his motorcycle and starts the engine. A couple quick revs of the throttle and in one fluid motion he kicks up the stand and speeds off down the alley. He slows momentarily at the alley entrance scanning the street before accelerating away.