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Part eight: "Death and Deceptions"

Article: 1208 of alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
Subject: Silk and Steel, part 8
Date: 8 Feb 93 03:47:45 GMT
Lines: 499
 
Silk and Steel, Part eight: "Death and Deceptions"
Copyright February 1993 by Jay B. Brandt, all rights reserved
 
--------------------------------------------------------------
In the South Sprawl Megamall, the Virtually There franchise was closed for
the day. Police investigators, forensics experts, and in-house security
agents were crawling all over the place, and the owners refused to allow
the store to re-open until the cause of the multiple deaths last night was
determined. All the displays facing the mall and lobby were set to cycle
messages indicating that the franchise was temporarily closed, citing
'technical problems', and indicating that all other franchise outlets were
open and happy to serve, with a list of their locations. A small crowd of
nosy reporters waited outside, counting bodybags and looking for a fresh
scoop.
 
Detective Susan Isbell watched as the last of the bodies was being removed
by the coroner. Six people had died here early this morning, one more was
in critical condition, and one employee was completely missing. It was a
puzzle with several pieces missing, the kind she liked to solve.
 
Four of the deaths had been clients sharing one VR suite, two men and two
women. According to ID and other papers found on their bodies, all four
were Japanese citizens, apparently working and living in the Seattle area.
All appeared to be in their mid to late 60's. According to the initial
forensics report, three of them were that old, but the fourth was in his
mid 40's, and had been wearing makeup to make himself -look- to be the same
age as his companions. The preliminary coroner's report indicated that all
four had died of heart failure. All attempts to revive them had failed. 
 
Perhaps they could have been involved in a simstim or VR sensorium that was
just too intense for them to handle. There were supposed to be safeguards
in place to prevent that, but an equipment failure -could- have allowed it,
under the right circumstances. Or perhaps the four of them were accessing
the Matrix and ran afoul of some Black Ice in cyberspace. She wouldn't know
until she could get a court order to force Virtually There to reveal what
the clients were using the VR suite for. So far, corp officials had
declined to cooperate in that regard, citing client privacy rights. 
 
Susan could understand why the corp was uneasy about cooperating. It would
be -very- bad public relations if it turned out the clients died because
Virtually There had somehow failed to safeguard them sufficiently. In fact,
the manager of the store had stated that as his primary reason, and had
tried to slip her a significant bribe to 'find some other cause' of the
deaths. She had refused the bribe, but assured him she would look at -all-
possibilities, and would not simply jump on his corp as the easy scapegoat.
 
Besides, there were other factors that pointed elsewhere. When the four
clients started experiencing heart failure, an alarm went off in the
technician's booth. One of the two technicians who was supposed to be on
duty went to check on them. When he opened the door, he died too, as did
the girl working as a sales clerk in the hardware boutique down the hall.
Both of them were young and in perfect health. Both also died of heart
attacks, and could not be revived.
 
The receptionist in the front booth also collapsed, but not before she
could trigger an alarm. She was in critical condition at Medical South, but
it looked as if she was going to recover. She should be ready to answer
some questions this afternoon.
 
There was supposed to be another technician on duty. He was nowhere to be
found, and no one could recall seeing him since the incident. The other
clients had eventually had to let themselves out, when no one responded to
requests for assistance. Susan had interviewed several of them, and let
them go. All had been unaware of any problems, other than a lack of service
when it was time for their sessions to end. One man had just kept playing
in the VR sensorium. When he was revived, his biggest concern was weather
or not he was going to be charged for the extra four hours.
 
And the four clients who died? All four were found to be heavily tattooed,
in oriental motifs consistent with high ranking Yakuza members. If the
'Japanese Mafia' was involved in this somehow, this could prove to be a
-very- interesting case. A very dangerous one, too, if the Yaks decided to
take exception to the investigation. Susan noted she would have to be
exceptionally careful in handling this one.
 
One of the forensics technicians ran up to Susan and grabbed her by the
arm. "Detective Isbell! We think we found something. Come with me, please."
He led her to the equipment room behind the VR boutique. "The manager
mentioned that some work was being done in here on the climate control
system. It was supposedly just routine maintenance. One of my women noticed
that there was a panel in here on one of the ducts that was only held in
place by two screws, instead of the eight that were supposed to hold it
there. And that duct is the one that feeds air to the suite the four
clients were in. Everything else in here is spotless, with nothing out of
place, and no prints. We're just about to open it. Go ahead, Marcie. Lets
see what we have." 
 
The woman kneeling by the duct took out a screwdriver and carefully removed
the top screw. When it was almost out, she took out a small tool with a
hook on one end, and looped it into a screw hole on the panel. Then she
removed the screw and used the hook tool to ease the panel to one side,
pivoting it on the remaining screw. "Bingo!" she exclaimed. "Detective,
take a look at this. There's a couple aerosol cans of solvent in here." She
used a pair of tongs and carefully sealed each can in a plastic bag, and
she smiled. "I'll bet the team in the lab can get something off these."
 
"Good work, both of you. Get those to the lab immediately. And call me as
soon as you have a lab report." Susan's personal comm unit bleeped at her.
She unclipped it from her belt and answered it. "Isbell. Go ahead." She
paused a moment, listening. "Terrorists in a parking garage? OK, I'll be
right there." She clipped the comm unit back on her belt, and headed out to
her patrol car. Just another busy day in the Sprawl. Just hope those
reporters outside won't delay me -too- much.
--------------------------------------------------------------
When Argus closed the service door to the parking garage behind him, he was
in pitch darkness. He activated the infrared mode on the eyes of the
damaged penetrator rat remote, which was still directly linked to his
Cyberlink, and linked what the remote could see to his own vision. The warm
steam pipes gave off more than enough passive infrared to clearly
illuminate the tunnel. The low ceiling was densely covered with large pipes
and electrical cables, with junction boxes, valves and meters on the walls
at irregular intervals. Occasionally he would come across a locked steel
service door, like the one he had entered the tunnel through. Less often,
there was a ladder leading up to a manhole cover in the street. These
manhole covers were all welded shut, or locked in place with heavy
restraining bolts, for security.
 
He walked briskly down the service tunnel for what he guessed was about
four blocks. Then he activated the map chip in his combat deck, and tried
to get a fix on his own location. The little Navistar module in the deck
indicated that he was about half a block from the safe-house Shadowcat had
rented for last night's operation. That would be a safe place to go to plan
his next moves, provided he could figure out a way to escape these blasted
tunnels.
 
At the next ladder, he climbed up and inspected the cover. It was locked
down with three restraining bolts. Argus tucked the remote back in his
jacket, and extended a fiber-optic cable up through a hole in the cover.
This manhole opened into the street, near the curb. There was a delivery
truck parked overhead, but if he was careful, he should be able to get out.
Unfortunately, the bolts were designed to be removed from above, using a
special tool. Well, Argus had his own tool for opening the way. He took out
the rat remote again, aimed three short bursts from the cutting laser in
its tail, and clipped off the lugs that held the cover in place. The last
burst was somewhat weak, and he had to try a second time before the last
lug gave way. He checked through the link, and confirmed that the power
pack in this remote was nearly exhausted. 
 
He put the remote and fiber-optic cable away, and carefully lifted the
manhole cover and slid it to one side. Then he crawled out and rolled over
to the curbside. The sidewalk was rather crowded with office workers coming
back from a late lunch, or going about various errands. They were all quite
intent on their own business, and paid no attention to this man in
workman's clothing, probably assuming he was simply working on the truck.
Argus melted into the crowd, and a few moments later entered a nearby
alley.
 
He walked through the narrow alley to the middle of the block, and turned
right, down the service road that ran the length of the block, along the
backsides of the buildings. He paused and tried calling Shadowcat again on
the head-phone. It rang this time, but she didn't answer it. Either she was
unconscious or asleep, then. It wouldn't be able to ring at all if she were
dead, And if she were awake, she would have answered it. Or maybe not, if
something was taking -all- her attention, like trying to evade capture. He
shook his head and broke off the connection. Maybe she -hadn't- gotten
away.
 
"Lookin' for somethin' chummer?" A girl's voice called to him, from the
fire escape above. "I don't take too kindly to folks relieving themselves
outside my window, so if that's what yer after, get lost! And no fast
moves, hokay? Just keep your hands where I can see them." He looked up at
her. She seemed to be an Asian/Hispanic mix, and was maybe sixteen. The
Chinese rifle she was holding looked like it was much older. And it was
aimed right at Argus's head.
 
Argus smiled, and kept his hands out to his sides. "No prob, little sister.
I'm looking for a friend, actually. He calls himself Skinny Willie. You
seen him? I got some biz if he's in."
 
She looked him over carefully, but didn't lower the weapon. "Depends. Who's
asking?"
 
"Tell him it's his old chummer, Schitz. The rat man. Tell you what. You let
me get something out of my jacket. It's a broken rigger remote. One he
made. No tricks, no trouble. You just give him the remote, and he'll know
it's me." Moving -very- slowly, he reached into his jacket and got out the
penetrator remote. He popped open the maintenance port, so she could see
it. "See, it's just a remote, and it's broken. You take it to him, hokay
sister?"
 
She stared at it a moment, as if she was trying to look through it. "Hokay
chummer. Toss it up here, I'll see if Willie's up yet." Argus did so, and
she snatched it in mid air and darted inside.
 
A few minutes later there was a scraping sound, and the door on the ground
level opened a crack. Argus moved to where he could be seen. The door
opened wider, and a high-pitched man's voice came from inside. "Schitz! It
-is- you! Get in here you old rascal, and tell me how this little fellah
got so chewed up."
 
Argus stepped inside, and the door closed behind him. A small robot drone,
about three feet high, was standing inside, with it's twin-camera head
staring at him like a strange parody of a face. Where the nose belonged
there was a gun barrel, and the head had a pair of floodlights for ears and
a speaker grille for a mouth. The body was a featureless cylinder with
tank-like treads, and had a recess in the top where the head could be
withdrawn to for protection. There was a single manipulator arm mounted on
the front. It looked like something a kid would cobble together for a high
school robotics class. Argus chuckled. "Hey Willie, you still making toys
like this out of scrap? I thought you went first-class some time ago."
 
The robot turned and rolled to an elevator at the other end of the room.
Willie's voice came from it. "Very funny, Schitz. Not all of my customers
can afford the top rate tech. There's still plenty to be made with
so-called 'toys' like this remote. Come on up." Argus shook his head and
followed the rather silly looking rigger remote into the elevator, for the
ride up to the next floor.
 
When the door opened at the top, he was met by a cadaverous looking man in
a powered wheelchair. Skinny Willie made a damned good living designing,
building, testing and repairing custom rigger remotes. He was one of the
best. He found it satisfying, and was a much happier person than many
people Argus knew. He was only 40 or so, but looked much older. His
stick-thin arms were quietly folded in his lap, and seldom moved at all. A
blanket covered legs Argus knew were just as thin. If Willie weighed more
than 60 pounds, it was a miracle. Years ago, Argus had asked Willie why he
never got cyberware replacements for his wasted limbs. Willie had just
laughed, and said 'the meat' wasn't important, so long as it served to keep
his brain alive. And it did that just fine. He had plenty of strong,
healthy bodies. His remotes. Besides, his torso wasn't much better off than
his arms and legs, and he didn't want to become mostly machine. He could
always link to a new remote. Replacing damaged or defective cyberware was a
lot more delicate. The risk wasn't worth it to him. He never went out,
except as one of his remotes. In the apartment and workshop, he pretty much
lived in the custom chair he was in now, A pair of very advanced
manipulator arms mounted to the back of the chair were wired directly to a
Cyberlink on Willie's head. One arm held Argus's dead remote. The other
held a can of beer with a straw in it, from which he was drinking. "Ah,
Schitz! So good to see you!" He put the rat remote in his lap, and held out
a manipulator to shake Argus's hand. 
 
Argus Shook hands with the manipulator without hesitation. "It's good to
see you too, Willie." he said quietly. "But I'm afraid this isn't a social
call. Look, I need to drop off two damaged remotes. The one I gave your
young friend, and one more, here." He reached into his jacket and set the
other remote gently in Willie's lap. "You remember my associate? The girl
that used your safe-room last night? Somebody just hit the van we were in
with an RF mine and several flash-bang concussion grenades. These little
guys were outside my van when we got hit. The attack scragged the van, so
you can imagine what they went through. Do what you can to fix 'em up. Our
usual terms. And no rush. I have several others, and have some unfinished
biz to take care of."
 
"Sure Schitz, anything else? I got a great new water remote. Looks just
like a harbor seal. Swims real fast, and can maneuver on land if needed.
It's even got a cargo bay in it's belly big enough for at least four of
your rat remotes."
 
Argus laughed. "Maybe next time. No, the only other thing I need is to use
your safe-room again. The same one my associate used last night. We got
separated in the fight, and I think one of the mercs that hit us took her
with them. Maybe an hour, two max, then I'll be gone. That OK?"
 
"Sure, sure. You know the rates. Maria?" The girl who had greeted Argus
with the rifle scooted in. Willie handed her the rat remotes. "Put these on
my workbench child. And Schitz here's gonna use the safe-room for a few
hours." She nodded and walked out with the remotes. Willie looked back at
Argus. "I'll probably have the rats done by tomorrow morning. You want them
dropped somewhere, or should I just activate them and leave 'em downstairs,
so you can call them yourself if needed."
 
"Just activate 'em. I'll probably just come by and get them personally, but
the way this biz is going down, I don't know. By the way, sweet helper you
got there. You still taking in street kids? One of these days you're gonna
get one that'll turn on you."
 
It was Willie's turn to laugh. "Oh, I know it. But hey, if old Paul hadn't
taken -me- in as a kid, I never woulda lasted -this- long. I got ten kids
now that help me with my work. Four of them look like they got the makings
of first-class rigger techs. Maria there, she's my newest. We're like
family, and we watch out for each other. Don't worry about me chummer, I'll
be just fine."
 
Argus smiled. "Gotcha Willie. You just take care of yourself, OK? I'd hate
like hell to have to find someone to replace you."
 
"I like you too, Schitz. Now get the hell outa here and get your
associate's ass outa the fire, if you can. And bring her back sometime to
meet me. I don't get enough company, you know that."
 
Argus took the elevator to the ground, and stepped back out into the alley.
The door behind him closed with an audible click. He looked up at the fire
escape, and waved at Maria, who was back on guard with her rifle. Then he
headed down the alley a ways further to what looked like a burned out
office complex. But inside, after passing through a few doorways, he got to
a new steel door with an electronic lock and an advanced alarm system. He
keyed in his personal security code, and went inside, setting the perimeter
alarms so he would not be disturbed.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Danny Li patted the satchel next to him in the car as his driver took him
away from the parking garage. At least he wasn't coming out of this empty
handed, like the last time. He may have lost the girl, but he had the
contents of that bastard Aki's packet right here in the satchel, along with
the data disk from the girl's Cyberdeck and what looked like some personal
stuff from her mercenary pal. That oughta make Mr. Makoto happy. They could
pick up the girl any time. She wouldn't be going anywhere until the cops
were finished with her. The cops would find her, no matter where she was
hiding in that building. He'd like to see her trying to talk them outa
nailing her on a multiple-murder rap, for having aced both the merc she had
been with and the one or two ronin from Danny's team that she -had- killed.
He called his bosses office on his personal comm unit, and arranged for a
meeting. "Yeah Lia? Danny. Tell Mr. Makoto I got Aki's packet. Yeah, I'm
bringing it in right now. I scragged the merc that received that packet,
and got a data disk from the Cyberdeck that belonged to the girl who was
with him. Hung the rap on the skirt. Got some other stuff too. Yeah. Figure
I'll be there in fifteen, maybe twenty minutes. Depends on traffic. Later
babe."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Argus jacked in his combat deck to the secure matrix access port in
Willie's safe-room, and started to try to get a bearing on what the hell
was going on. First he sent a signal to the two rat-remotes he had left at
the Chatsubo, recalling them to this location.
 
Then he tried to get a better fix on Shadowcat. He tried the head-phone
again. It rang about twenty times, but she didn't answer it. She must be
out cold, wherever she was. So he tried accessing the remote minicams in
the gold and ruby hair-clips she had worn for her combat gig last night.
They responded, but he wasn't getting any video. He cranked up the passive
infrared mode to max intensity. There was just a slight difference in
illumination from one side of the image to the other. If she had placed
them in a pocket, the side toward her body would be warm enough to glow.
Hopefully, they were in her duffel, and the bag was still with her. He
-was- getting something on audio. He cut the video feed, and cranked the
volume to max pickup. There was the sound of a vehicle's motor, some music,
possibly on the car radio, and occasionally a voice speaking in Japanese.
He set the deck to triangulate on the signal while he tried to listen. 
 
One voice, male, was speaking. < . . .was not seen leaving the building.
The young lady you asked about almost gave us the slip. Whatever else she
is, she's good at quick changes. If my partner had not been watching the
roof, or if she had waited until she was in the next building to change her
clothing and hair, she would have gone right by us. She's sleeping quietly
now, and we have her duffel bag as well.> There was a pause, as if waiting
for someone else to speak, <Yes. I will take her to you. No, she does not
appear to have been injured.> Another pause. <Yes. I saw at least six of
his men there. I recognized one of his street enforcers, Danny Li.
Apparently Danny is trying to move up from shaking down store owners to
kidnapping. Your pardon, but he is still just an ineffective punk.> Pause.
<Yes. I understand.> The voice stopped speaking, and Argus heard the car
phone handset being hung up.
 
The triangulation indicated that she was still moving, and that she was
heading into the North sector of the Sprawl. A fairly nice neighborhood.
Argus left the audio channel open, and set the deck to alert him when the
trace stopped moving.
 
Next he tried to locate his satchel. If the satchel was with Shadowcat, he
might be able to help her from here. There was another of his rat remotes
in that bag, tucked under his clothing and other personal gear, along with
some extra ammunition and tools. There was also a remote controlled color
printer in a hidden compartment in the base of the satchel, which he
occasionally used to forge documents when on a run. He activated the rat
remote, and listened carefully. He heard the sound of a different vehicle,
no radio, and a voice making a phone call in English, with a Japanese
accent. He listened carefully to Danny's report. So, this must be the jerk
the other voice spoke of, this enforcer called Danny who had been part of
the team that attacked the van. And he said he had the packet and a disk?
Hmmmm.
 
Argus checked the triangulation on this signal. It was in a different part
of town, heading East along the highway. He activated the IR floodlight in
the rat's tail, and climbed out of the stacked clothing. On top of the
pile, the remote found two vidchips and a data disk. He looked at the disk,
and chuckled. It was from -Argus's- deck, not Shadowcat's. Danny boy must
have assumed that Argus was only a rigger, so naturally the deck must
belong to the girl, right? And he apparently thought Argus was dead. Wrong
on both counts, Danny. But Argus still didn't want him to have that disk.
He took the disk in the remote's mouth, and positioned it where it could
grab the disk and escape if the chance presented itself, or where a few
swift bites could destroy the disk if necessary.
 
Then Argus smiled broadly as a somewhat devious idea occurred to him. He
had a scanned image of Aki's signature and seal somewhere on file. He
located it. Then he got busy with a word processing program. When the
document was ready, he sent it to the printer in the satchel. The
fast-drying dye-sublimation printer silently extruded the paper into the
top of the satchel, out of what appeared to be a pocket on the inner side
of the bag. Then he carefully used the rat remote to fold up the paper into
a fairly small packet, which he left in the top of the bag next to the
vidchips. Then he got the rat ready to jump out with the disk. The
triangulation fix had slowed to a stop, at some office buildings in the
East Sector. He set the remote to activate when exposed to light, and
powered down all it's systems to standby mode. Then he waited for Danny to
open his 'surprise package'.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Detective Isbel arrived at the parking garage as the bomb-squad left. The
officer in charge of the emergency response team met her at the entrance.
"Got a double header for you, detective Isbel. Two vehicles shot up and
burned. Two dead bodies, both burned beyond recognition. Indications of a
gun battle, with several explosive devices that appear to have damaged one
of the vehicles. Found three abandoned weapons on the roof, two of which
were almost fully loaded. An anonymous call reported this as an attack by a
blonde female terrorist, but no one's claimed responsibility for this one
yet. We made a thorough sweep of the building, and the only people we found
were two Japanese 'businessmen' who claimed to have been parking their car
on the top level when this hit. I interviewed the garage attendant, and he
confirmed that a blonde woman went in there, and gave us a pretty good
description. Said she went in hanging onto the arm of an unidentified man
who had a vehicle inside, and she was carrying a medium sized duffel bag.
But he never saw either of them leave. The man might be one of the two
victims. Plates on the trashed van match the one that he parked here."
 
"My first guess is the girl came on to the guy, then led him into some sort
of trap inside. Maybe it was a contract hit. As for the second victim, it
appears to have been someone who tried to stop her, and got killed for his
trouble. Go on up and take a look for yourself, detective. We left the
bodies and vehicles right were we found them. All we did was put out the
fires." Susan started to the elevators, and he called out "You'll have to
use the elevator on the other side. That one's apparently out of order."
 
Susan turned around and went up in the other elevator. A young black man
with a still video camera was taking pictures for the forensics department.
The van was a burned-out shell. It would take them a while to determine the
exact sequence of events, but it did look like this body might have been
shot several times before the van was torched. It also looked like the van
had been hit with explosives. The other vehicle was more intact. There was
a body near the rear of the vehicle, and it looked as if something had
caused the fuel tank to explode. Multiple small holes in the vehicle behind
the victim looked sort of like a close-range shotgun blast, but there was
something strange about the pattern of the holes that just wasn't right.
Well, she'd leave that to the ballistics team to determine. From the
position of the body, it looked like this person was fighting with someone
on the side -away from- the van. That was curious. If this person was
trying to stop an attack or an abduction, shouldn't he have been firing the
other direction?
 
She called in a preliminary report, and continued to look for clues.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Danny was waiting in the outer office for Mr. Makoto. He was beginning to
have second thoughts about this. Maybe he should have checked the stuff he
got, before setting up this meeting? Maybe it would be a good idea to look
at what was in the bag right now, so he wouldn't look so unprepared.
 
Danny set the bag on the floor as the receptionist went into the oyabun's
office. He opened the bag, and looked inside. A blur of gray fur came
bursting out of the bag into his face, and he jumped back. "What the hell?"
he shouted. He looked across the room to see a large gray rat running for
the door on the other side. A rat with a computer disk in it's mouth! He
scrambled to the doorway, but by the time he got there he could not see
which way the vermin had run. He started to go look for it, when the
receptionist said behind him "Danny? Mr., Makoto will see you now."
Reluctantly, Danny turned and went back into the office. He picked up the
satchel, and carried it in with him.
 
Mr. Makoto was in his late 50's and still looked like a football
linebacker. He had been running the Yakuza's protection biz in Seattle for
as long as Danny could remember. "Well, Danny, what have you got for me."
 
Danny coughed and tugged at his collar, which suddenly seemed two sizes too
small. "Um, well sir, I got what's in here sir." he said as he set down the
satchel on the huge desk. He looked around, and realized there was no chair
for him to sit on. so he remained standing. "Um, I had a data disk too,
But, well, there was this rat. I don't know how it got into the bag, sir.
Um, maybe it crawled into it in the garage, er, I guess sir. Hey, Mister M,
I know it sounds weird, but I wouldn't make up something like that, would
I?"
 
"What are you trying to tell me Danny? You said you had a disk. Now you say
you don't? You are telling me this 'rat' just happened to be in there, and
just happened to take the disk?" Mr. Makoto shook his head sadly. "Tell me
Danny, what else is in this bag?"
 
"Er, it should be the stuff from the packet that Aki sent to the bar. A
couple vidchips. And some personal stuff from their van."
 
"And what is on these vidchips? Have you looked at them yet? Apparently you
didn't look through the bag very well, if you missed something as large as
a rat. And where are the people to whom this packet was delivered?"
 
"Er, no sir. I didn't look at any of it. I just got it and brought it
straight here. The guy that got the packet was some sort of rigger. I
killed him when we got the girl. But then the girl got away from us. The
cops oughta have her now. They think she killed the guy, and one of my men,
too."
 
Mr. Makoto sighed. "Very well. Wait outside while I view these." Danny
left, and the oyabun picked up the vidchips and the folded piece of paper.
He read the paper. It was a note from Aki to a person named Charline. In
part, it said "Danny Li informs me that Makoto escaped our trap last night.
He will allow you to escape, and will let you into Makoto's HQ later for
another attempt." It was signed with Aki's signature and seal. He placed
the vidchips into a reader built into his desk. Both were blank. Mr. Makoto
quietly placed a phone call. "Diana? Danny Li has proven untrustworthy.
Dispose of him."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Text, all characters (especially Obaasan, Aki, Argus and Shadowcat), and
the 'Virtually There' chain of simstim/VR clubs,
all Copyright February 1993 by Jay B. Brandt, all rights reserved. 
Please use them only with my permission. 
 
Comments, criticisms, and suggestions are requested.
Please send them to me via e-mail at <JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.edu>
--------------------------------------------------------------
 
Well folks, there's part 8.  Part 9 should be out in another one to two
weeks. What do you think? Any new comments?
 
Shadowcat