Androids and Akhmatova

[Ezra Weil]

Ezra takes the elevator upstairs and waits outside Lady Violet's office. When someone enters the office, he follows in after them, and stands in the corner of the room watching Erika. Erika is not doing much, she just sits there with a confused look on her face. Violet talks to the person in her office. "Amnesia....Xeno....Germany....internal maps....the halting of the machine at some point yesterday...." are among the things mentioned in the conversation. He does not want to try his luck and stay any longer, so once he has gathered at least that information, he leaves with the operative.
He starts to make his way back to the lobby with 15 minutes of invisibility left.

[Zinn]

Zinn walks into a bar. She sits down on a stool.

"Oi, Steve, I'd like a shot of vodka," Zinn says to the bartender.

Vodka and beer are the only alchoholic beverages available. Anything else would be too expensive to produce. There's also the house special, moonshine, but Zinn wouldn't touch that if it was the last drink on Earth. Brewers often "enhance" those drinks with substances normally considered toxic.

[Virgil- The Prophet]

Virgil laughs, spreading his arms, "That is the extent of your razor wit? Well, this is not the time for jokes, bad or no." Virgil brushes the hair out of his eyes and meets Shard's gaze with his own, nearly identical stare. "I've been watching you for awhile. I think it's about time we had a talk."

[Shard]

Shard crossed his arms and stared at Virgil. He narrowed his eyes tapped his foot. "Well then.. what do you want??"

[Ruth]

I fill out paperwork, page after page of boring, boring paperwork. I make up addresses, I fill in fake names and jobs that I have had. I do this for what seems like hours, though when I look up at the large wall clock in the lobby, only about fifteen minutes have passed. This is unbearable. I start to feel fidgety.

I decide to make a visit to the loo. I ask the woman at the lobby desk where the ladies' is, and she directs me down the hall and to the left.

I head toward it, but upon leaving the main lobby doorway, an alarm goes off. It is now that I realize that they probably have weapons sensors in the building, and I just happened to be toting two very nice pipe bombs in my satchel. I hear the sound of many feet heading my way.

Now would be a good time to run... and perhaps to pray as well.#nosmileys

[Virgil- The Prophet]

"It's quite simple really," says Virgil, his hands still spread slightly as he walks infront of Shard, not moving closer, only circling him. "You see there are physical likenesses of course but it goes deeper, a little more twisted than that but the building blockes are there, like identical Lego houses without the same colored blocks."

Virgil stops, turned with Shard on his left side. "Do you understand what I'm saying Shard? Or do I need to make it simpler?"

[Raz Nili Ze'ev]

Raz jolts back to reality. She had fallen asleep standing up. As a result, her neck hurt. To her credit, she had gone three days without sleeping.

Ezra is gone, but that is to be expected.

She scans quickly for his mental signature, and finds him in a government buiding.

Hello Ezra. What have you been up to? Sorry I dozed off. Find anything new about the machine?

Raz is somwhat humiliated that she had fallen asleep at such a critical moment.

[Ezra Weil]

Ezra hears the alarm go off and immediately starts searching for Ruth. Even though she had only been left alone for 15 minutes she managed to set off the alarms. He spots her running for the door, and he catches up to her as she leaves.
Once they are both outside, he turns visible again, as they continue to run, now being chased by guards.
"What?...what did you do? I knew this was an idiotic idea...I knew that something like this would happen....argh!!" he shouts as he runs.

He hears Raz's voice in his mind.
I didn't find out much. Erika has amnesia so it not much help to even Red Infinity. I am with a woman named Ruth, we are just now leaving Beijing... He replies as calmly as he can. The last thing he wants is Raz to raz him about leaving on a dangerous and foolhardy mission.

[Mikhael Nadyezhda (Mischa)]

The girl next to me orders something.

"Vodka sounds good. I'll take some of that."

I turn to the stranger.

"So, what're you in for?"

[Steve Fox]

Rubbing an arm that's still sore, Steve walks the streets of St. Petersburg. "Bloody Burg. Only place with a train run within the last week... should've waited..." He has no plan, no direction. Dollar and the Russian chick were MIA and Steve was just the muscle. Inivative ideas were not his thing. Well, maybe he'd be able to do something... once he found out where he was. Looking around he spots a girl with pink hair (Cynthia). Why she has pink hair, beyond him, he doesn't try to understand people anymore. "Oye!" He shouts at her, walking towards her, "I need directions. Where the hell is this?"

[Shard]

Shard's eyes widened in shock. He had a really good idea what he ment.. but.. he wasn't sure.. "N..No... I don't understand..." He wanted to make sure.

[Ruth]

I run with all of my might, my long legs keeping stride with the now visible Ezra.

"I had to take a leak, that is all? I didn't realize that there would be alarms on the way to the ladies' room!"

We head down an alley, the sounds of the guards can be heard following at a short distance. I don't want to risk a look back.

[Zinn]

"What do you mean?" Zinn asks warily. She notes the man's Russian accent. After evaluating him for a second, she determines he is not a Red Infinity operative, so she doesn't reach for her gun.

[Cynthia]

"Hello there, cutie. It all depends on where you mean by 'here'. You're in St. Petersburg, talking to a prostitute. What else do you need to know?" She should probably be more careful, but he doesn't look like he works for Red Infinity.

[Ezra Weil]

The guards start firing on them. Ezra quickly pulls Ruth into a low rent apartment building, where they continue to run down a dingy hall. He enters an open apartment, startling the elderly couple inside.
"Okay we are safe for a few minutes. You set off an alarm? So you are armed. What do you have on you?"