In Episode 22, MMFEC gets the data Wuxing wanted – but at a steep price for Elsie and Cromwell. The team goes deeper on their Wuxing mission, but will it be their last as a team? Catch all episodes of “Shadowrun: Corporate SINs” on our YouTube playlist; Ep 22 is embedded at the end of this post.
We left MMFEC split across two locations – Elsie has just received an alarming and threatening note from a “schoolmate” while undercover, and the rest of MMFEC just tore things up at a Yakuza warehouse for stolen Wuxing goods.
Meanwhile, at the warehouse, MMFC take a moment to compose themselves and discuss dead bodies – then they break into a server room on the 2nd floor of the building courtesy of Cromwell’s… patented door technique. Another wave of guards comes through but Cromwell – berzerking with the server room door stuck to his horns – eventually manages to take them out with help Mordecai. Fang nobly and selflessly protects Ma1nfram3 from harm once again during the fight.
Ma1nfram3 jacks into the storage device that is separated from the warehouse network, and manages to find a series of encrypted payloads – and a suspicious set of paired data that she decodes into the encryption key for the documents Elsie retrieved from Lei’s locker. Once combat ends, Ma1n decrypts the Lei payload and informs the team of an impending hit on a Wuxing container ship.
Back at school, Elsie confronts her original “mark” Lei Song, who tells Elsie her cover story was “creative” but not smart, and that she’s been traced to a pair of escapees from the Boston quarantine. Lei blackmails Elsie: make sure the impending theft goes forward, or Lei will turn Elsie and Cromwell in.
Elsie leaves the school grounds, and calls in the Wuxing hit to their contacts. She also comes clean about the double agent contract to Lei’s father. She then calls Cromwell and tells him “We’ve been made”.
In the relative safety of neutral territory, Elsie and Cromwell tell the rest of MMFEC that they are leaving Seattle. The note referencing “white tree” left for Elsie is a connection to a gang in Boston that have ties to Elsie and Cromwell’s past. It’s no longer safe for them with their identities compromised, so they need to lie low in Tir Tairgnire. Ma1n creates a digital trail for them that leads to Denver to throw others off the scent. Ma1n also calls Mordecai to talk, but her effort is thwarted by Mordecai’s gremlins and she ends up connected to Talia awkwardly. Fang is near-despondent at the news that Elsie and Cromwell are leaving, and seems to take their departure personally.
However, MMFEC still agrees to Wuxing’s offer to supplement the security on the container ship. MMFEC has been instructed to stop the theft. For once, that kind of work may be right up their alley. The team boards the ship and investigates; placing a series of strategic flashbangs. Ma1nfram3 uncovers a ship’s manifest that includes a tank-like multipersonnel carrier – Elsie lights up like a Christmas tree once Ma1n gets her access.
Eventually, the boat pulls away, and in the night air a series of boats bearing 5 intruders approaches. We leave MMFEC as the first of the team manages to board the ship.