“Yeah…right.” The gunman replied as he reached for the bowl of Wasabi peas, his eyes on Grace the entire time and hands them over. “Here ya go.”

Mentally Grace cursed. She hadn’t spotted what was in his ear and she hated Wasabi. “Thank you” she said doing her best to keep her baby voice. Suddenly the man who was speaking to Kane walk past them. The man she was talking to walk away from her and started following him. Grace turned to see at least three men join behind him.

Any one who saw that look in her eye would know: Grace had entered her paranoid mode. In her mind; Grace was trying to figure out whether or not the man she was talking to was a friend or enemy. She reached into her pocket and grabbed her butterfly knife. Still keeping it closed Grace started to walk forward. She saw someone shove a man onto their original table. Grace was trying to figure out what to do when she realized Kane was looking at her.

Grace sighed quietly and took her hand off the knife. ‘Don’t do something dumb. You are not sneaky. Try to stay calm.’ She reminded herself. Grace turns towards Kane and the table and walk towards them. Then she got an idea. However to do it she wanted some info from Kane. Grace reaches the table. Smiling a little bit to show she wasn’t in her twitchy mode she said “Well, do we have some sort of deal or a problem on our hands?”

Hera – Gambler’s Gully, Ace in the Hole Saloon. 9:25 pm Saturday
The asian man and his friends left the bar with the case in hand. The woman in questioned looked perplexed and then turned to head around the corner towards Kane and Mel. At first she seemed to move towards Kane, but stops abruptly and says, “I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else” before going pass you to search the booths in the back.

Kane and Mel move back to the table along with Grace and Phil once the mechanic gets his attention. Angela is still at the table but with a man sprawled across, on his back. As you move closer, you see than apparently he has fallen asleep there as he snores loudly. One of the serving comes by as you convene and gently lifts Arthur off the table, “He does this all the time. We got a cot in the back we call Arthur’s just for him.” She leads him off to the back as he sleepily sings, “Santa Claus is coming to town”.

Left to you own again, Kane and Mel fill the party in on what happened and show the scanner to the others. The viewer alone is worth at least 20 credits, so there is a profit to the night. Grace shares what she heard about your potential employer on the news feed and ponders aloud whether she could make a receiver out of her multiband watch that might pick up the signal of the earwigs the gentlemen were using.

As you talk about the possibilities for awhile, the scanner suddenly beeps twice loudly and then seems to reboot. The disk re-engages and the schematics appear again, only this time the security codes and passes appear.

Just as you realize your possible good fortune, sudden the front doors of the bar burst open and four police officers armed with assault rifles and wearing body armour charge in. At the same time, you hear the sound of the back door being crashed as well and the screams from some of the barmaids. The low buzz overhead tells of a hover vehicle circling overhead.

One of the officers speaks into a megaphone, causing his voice to echo across the room. “No one move! This is a joint Police and Alliance Special Forces raid! Everyone freeze and put them up!”

Hera – Gambler’s Gully, Ace in the Hole Saloon. 9:25pm Saturday
With everyone finally back at the table Kane saying nothing gave them all a good stare, after all had he and Mel not told them to stay put. Then it was down to business as he with Mel’s help related everything that had happened up to this point.

It was during this discussion of what to do next, that as it always seems to in space, that the unexpected happened and the small scanner suddenly beeped twice loudly and rebooted itself. The disk then re-engaged and the schematics once more appeared again, only this time the security codes and passes appeared with them.

“Run-tse duh fwo-tzoo... “ Kane could not help but exclaim upon seeing the gold mine in his hand.

Suddenly, as if fated, the front doors of the bar burst open and four police officers armed with assault rifles and wearing body armor charged in. At the same time Kane heard the sound of the back door being crashed as well and the screams from some of the barmaids. A low buzz heard overhead told of a hover vehicle circling overhead, clearly one of the police vehicles outside..

One of the officers then proceeded to speak into a megaphone, causing his voice to echo across the room. “No one move! This is a joint Police and Alliance Special Forces raid! Everyone freeze and put them up!”

Without thought the player in Kane’s hand was quickly moved out of sight and placed down the front of his trousers behind the large belt buckle there, then shirt pulled out to help cover that area and vest quickly rearranged to grant better access to the Heckler. Kane had learned long ago the best place to hide something was down a man’s pants as rarely did police or prison guards do more then a glancing search in that location. Hopefully this time would be no different. Without moving his head he addressed the others as he slowly raised his hands.

“Ok everyone stay calm let’s not be yu bun duh. It’s a good chance they are not here for us but the other people we were mistaken for. Lets play it nice and slow and see what happens. If things go to ‘guay’ wait for me to make the first move before we go hostile”

It was wait and see time for this shipless crew and their Captain....

Hera – Gambler’s Gully, Ace in the Hole Saloon. 9:27 pm Saturday

Oh almost forgot for you Firefly fans if ya want a small remembrance of that show watch the first few minutes of this weeks Castle episode. Watch closely as Castle dresses up in a possible costume for his party.... YEP its his old outfit from Firefly when he played the beloved Mal. Whoo Hoo memories!!

Grace did her best to ignore Kane glare as she listen to Mel. As soon as Mel showed the portable Scanner: Grace did a slight grin. She studies it and did some math in her head. Who ever had own it previously had used it a lot and it was worn. However the Scanner it self was 20 credits maybe even more if there was a chance to truly bargain. Still poking it around to check if the gentlemen had put a listening bug on it, Grace explained what she had heard about Watson.

“Our Employer is dead. According to the News, he died during a questioning. Something about allege terrorists. Not that I normal listen to the News. Or Alliance for that matter. The men who left this were wearing earwigs. I bet I can play around with my Multiband till I can listen in on them.” Grace stated. She frowned at the screen for a second. It looked like it was turning off...

Suddenly, it beeped twice and rebooted it self. Now it had a lot more information on it. Grace jaw dropped when she read the letters and numbers. She heard Kane explain in surprise. Not she blamed him; they had a gold mine on their hands. She knew someone who could really use this info and would happily pay a lot for it. Grace was about to say her idea when the police showed up.

She hears the shouts of Barmaids and sees the men burst through the door. One officer with a megaphone says “No one moves! This is a joint Police and Alliance Special Forces raid! Everyone freeze and put them up!” Kane quickly hides the Scanner. “Ok everyone stay calm let’s not be yu bun duh. It’s a good chance they are not here for us but the other people we were mistaken for. Let’s play it nice and slow and see what happens. If things go to ‘guay’ wait for me to make the first move before we go hostile” he advices. Grace gave a slight nod and but on her rucksack.

As she put her hands up; she studies the room and the officers. Trying to see if she could find an easy escape route.

Angela watched the goings on with a hawkish alertness that none of the party had witnessed since they day they’d rescued her from the prison mob. Her hand rested lightly on the sleeping man’s chest, but there was coiled danger in the set of her jaw.

It didn’t seem necessary, though, as Kane and Mel headed back to the table without incident, Phil and Grace joining them as the waitress collected Arthur and gently led him away. Angela’s stance relaxed and she threw a wistful glance at Arthur’s departing back.

“There goes my sandwich, I guess,” Angela muttered, then looked wide-eyed at Kane’s stare. “What? I didn’t go anywhere…he came over to me!” She shrugged, then let herself drop back into her chair.

Grace told everyone about what they’d heard about Watson, and Angela nodded without comment. More and more of the fire and steel drained out of her as the sense of danger passed, and the sensation distracted her from the conversation. The player was a novelty (she wondered if it would play Oatie Fruity Girls vids) but building layouts and security codes didn’t seem as important as being vaguely hungry and more vaguely troubled by the sense that she’d been different…for just that fleeting moment.

The front doors of the bar burst open and four police officers armed with assault rifles and wearing body armour charge in. At the same time, you hear the sound of the back door being crashed as well and the screams from some of the barmaids. The low buzz overhead tells of a hover vehicle circling overhead.

One of the officers speaks into a megaphone, causing his voice to echo across the room. “No one move! This is a joint Police and Alliance Special Forces raid! Everyone freeze and put them up!”
Distantly, Angela say Kane hide the player down the front of his pants and heard him tell everyone to stay calm, but that feeling of steely fire had come roaring back and she could hardly hear anything over the sound of her own heartbeat in her ears. She raised her hands meekly, her expression mildly frightened, but her racing mind was calculating distances and trajectories and rates of fire for the weapons carried by the Alliance men, as well as those carried by the bar patrons. She also began to consider whether or not the table would be substantial enough to act as a shield. One firm upward kick along her edge would send it up and onto its side, and she’d be able to hide behind it when the bullets and energy pulses began to fly. For now she waited though, the tension fairly humming along her nerve endings.