(22) SHOWDOWN "I swear it happened dead on high noon. I came out of The Brakelight on one side of the street and Josephus came out of some store on the other and we see each other and just stand there frozen, and our fingers start twitching by our guns. You could almost hear phantom spurs jingle and see the ghosts of tumbleweed roll by. Then his head explodes. I guess someone behind him didn't like him either" - Fireman Sam. Its sad really. Someone with Retiarius' brains should have realized that there is a reason why so many gangers work so cheap. Its because they're not very reliable. Retiarius asked for an army of Goldenboys. He got three. One of them is lying in a pool of blood and broken glass just by where Sarracen's empty car is parked. His neck is lying at an odd angle. He is quite dead, but still has his weaponry with him. Above him, on the top (ninth) floor, a window is broken. This time the P.C.s will have to push the elevator buttons themselves. When the doors slide open, they will reveal a wide-eyed Goldenboy, slouched in a mirrored corner, wheezing desperately and clutching at his bloodied chest. If the P.C.s take the trouble to listen, he is piteously pleading for help. His weapons have been taken away. The state of the third Goldenboy depends on whether Marilyn is still alive and free or not. If Marilyn is still alive, the third Goldenboy will be one foot off the ground and nailed to Retiarius' door with an iron spike through the throat. Yes, he is dead too. His automatic weapon still hangs uselessly from his lifeless fingers. If Marilyn is not alive and free, he is kneeling in front of the door with the top half of his head blown completely away. The walls of the corridor will be very messy. Yerch! Someone somewhere is obviously quite annoyed. The door to the apartment is locked. The P.C.s can pick the lock, shoot the lock, or knock and wait for someone to look through the peephole. Any of these methods should work. Tarbaby will be the one to open the door. If Marilyn was left alive and free, then she will be present and will pull some very angry faces at the P.C.s, but she won't attack. Sarracen will be positively delighted to see them - assuming that they don't start to act in a hostile manner. He will tell them that he forgives them, and quite understands how they could have been misled by the evil, conniving Retiarius. If Marilyn is dead or captive, then he will not know that the P.C.s ever turned on him. Retiarius himself is lying helplessly on his kitchen table. His interface jack has not just been disconnected. The cable has been completely ripped to bits. He can only move from the neck up, and cannot talk. Around him are positioned three video camera's on tripods. Sarracen thinks that simsense recorders would have been better, but that takes a lot more time to set up. Also in the kitchen are a large number of surgical gowns, gloves and masks. All that the P.C.s have to do to get the money they were originally offered, Sarracen explains, is to don the disguises and slowly mince away Retiarius with kitchen knives for the cameras. Simple. He won't do John Smith today though. He wants him to feature in a proper simsense. But they can prop him up so that he can see the netrunner being tortured to death. That should prime him for his own eventual big scene nicely. However the P.C.s feel about this turn of events, if Bram Lockwood is there, he will be horrified. Sure, Retiarius deserves to die, but the man was a colleague and he can't bring himself to let him die like that. More important yet, although he doesn't want to say this openly in front of Sarracen, is that Bram is still loyal to John Smith, the real Sarracen. All the same, Bram doesn't want to kill the false Sarracen yet. He's still useful. So the two will argue over the morality of torturing Retiarius, Sarracen maintaining that the runner deserves it, while Lockwood insists that there is no need for such sadism. The argument will get more and more heated. Feel free to let the players join in. When the P.C.s have had their say, or made it clear that they don't care, make the argument get so heated that the two start to threaten each other. If the players don't intervene, eventually Tarbaby will carefully aim his pistol at Bram's head from inside his coat. Let each P.C. roll at Vision-5 to notice this. If they fail, then Tarbaby will squeeze off a shot that will plug Bram Lockwood neatly between the eyes and end his nefarious career for good. Sarracen will smile gently at his driver and nod in satisfaction. If the characters want to save Bram Lockwood, this will involve gunning down Sarracen, Tarbaby and, if present, Marilyn. Bram will be very grateful and will arrange for them to be paid in full from his personal funds. Neither he nor John Smith will ever be heard from again, and Sarracen Entertainments will collapse in financial ruin shortly afterwards. The adventure will be over. If the characters don't rescue Bram Lockwood, they will have a decision to make. Will they obey Sarracen's orders to torture Retiarius to death or not? If they go along with Sarracen's sick plan, then don't sanitize the matter. Put in as much nasty detail as you, the G.M., can take - just so that they have to face what they are doing. However, they will get paid this way. They will hear on the news a week later that Sarracen was caught by the F.B.I. for the murder of Alexander "Retiarius" Blake, in infamous hacker known to police. The proof was a videotape that Sarracen Entertainments was hawking which showed Mr Blake being tortured to death - how careless can you get? Worse still, in one frame you can see Sarracen's gloating face reflected in a blood-stained kitchen knife. Let the P.C.s sweat over the possibility of themselves getting caught too. You might even want to have the F.B.I. investigate them, but if so, that's another story. If they refuse Sarracen's orders, he will fly into a rage. He won't stop them from leaving, but will swear revenge. He won't pay them a red cent and a week later, there will be a news report like the one above. If they get to see the video themselves, they will see that Tarbaby is the only one who agreed to put on the gown and commit the atrocities. Sarracen will still be caught as above. APPENDIX. TURNING SARRACEN IN "Don't write off the cops, boy. There may not be any law and order any more, but that doesn't stop the police from being the biggest, meanest gang in the whole U.S.A.." - Dead Letter. When the characters know that the F.B.I. is after Sarracen, they might well decide to blow the job and turn him in. He is, after all, a pretty nasty character who it would be better to have off the streets. If they have Sarracen's telephone number and give that to the police, then that will be easiest. Otherwise, they will have to have the F.B.I. gatecrash a meeting. In this case, the feds will insist that the characters go to the meeting. Said meeting will thus certainly erupt into a shoot-out - with the P.C. "traitors" being the first targets of the criminals. The cops will loan the characters medium monocrys vests though. Any cops on the raid will be ST 11, DX 11, IQ 10, HT 11, Spd 5.75, Dodge 5, Parry 10, thrust 1d-1, swing 1d+1 individuals with brawl -13 and guns (gyrocs) -13. They will carry a CY= or HT= gyroc launch pistol /CW= FE Rakete-P gyroc launch pistol /LC= Gemtex Urban Renewer gyroc launch pistol and wear a medium monocrys vest. All gyroc pistols are loaded with 6 SLAP and 3 CHEM (teargas as per B132). The P.C.s contact at the F.B.I. will be Inspector Andrew Rainie *, a haggard fifty-five hear old with gray hair and heavy bags under his eyes. Rainie speaks calmly with a slow, sad voice, but is very angry at Sarracen. After all, one of Sarracen's brainwashed victims happened to be Rainie's only child - his 19 year old son Jarvis. Rainie is so angry that he will come to the bust himself. If he survives, the P.C.s have just got themselves a valuable contact, which may be worth even more in the long run than the cash they would have received by following the job through. Rainie will be available on a 12- and is of Usual reliability. Give him an effective skill of 15 in knowing what is going on in the police-world. This makes him officially worth 8 points as a contact, although as he will be shared by all the P.C.s, he's not worth quite that much in real terms. You may want to give the P.C.s a reputation modifier of -1 amongst the criminal community because they played the stool pigeon. If so, make sure that Inspector Rainie is even more useful to them. After all, he will have gained word of their drop in reputation, and feel even greater obligation to them. [In Cyberpunk, the cops will have INT 6, REF 7, CL 6, MA 7, BODY 8. They have Brawling +6 and Submachinegun +6. They wear medium armour jackets and carry Uzi Miniauto 9 light submachine guns. They also have 3 Teargas grenades each.]. [In Shadowrun, the police are Body 4, Quickness 3, Strength 3, Charisma 2, Intelligence 3, Willpower 2, Essence 6, Reaction 3. They have Firearms 3 and Unarmed Combat 3. They will be wearing light security armour and carrying Uzi III submachineguns. They will also have 3 flash grenades each.]