Episode 1: Chasin' the Wind

As the first Matrix relay reboots and goes online with the upgraded component, your commlink rings.

"Wiz!" Ophelia’s face appears in the display. "I’ve been trying to get hold of you. Looks like the work’s gonna flow today. I have another Johnson on the line. He, ah, insisted on holding for you."

Your fixer’s face is replaced by what can only be described as a human-sized dragon, decked out in neo-Brit anarchist wannabe threads and sporting at least twenty individual pieces of flair from concerts around the globe. Your mind almost fills in the lizard-hiss as he speaks.

"Hoi, bloke! I’m Simon Andrews. Master Lofwyr would like to employ your services for a data retrieval. You see, we lost track of one of our laboratories in the recent mess. You’re to check out the lab, secure its contents, and retrieve a data packet from its node. I’m authorized to pay you each 3,000 nuyen for the job. Good deal for a few hours work, yeah?"

"Sure, mate," Simon answers. "I'll take dedication to a job as positive trait. But if you could do it tonight it would be blinding."

"The target is a place called Janus Industries, located at 1501 N. Greenview Ave. It is just off of Interstate 90, just inside the northern edge of the Noose."

The only thing you find on short notice is:
Old research firm back in the ’50s. I think it went to hell with the rest of Chicago.

You can find more information, but could potentially take a couple of hours.

You know where the relay is.

Puck will scan the astral for any threats

You don't know if they would count as threats, but the only living thing near the site is an unlucky squatter lying nearby. His astral signature shows he's just barely hanging on to life. Otherwise you don't sense anything, even the rats have enough sense to not be out in this weather it seems.

What’s left of Interstate 290 is a craterous mess. The highway hasn’t been maintained in two decades, so it’s a wonder the roads are even drivable. Oddly, the packed snow and ice help, but it’s a little like learning to play hockey for the first time.

When you arrive at Garfield Park, you find an overgrown series of playgrounds and picnic shelters surrounding a wooded area that’s too small to be called a forest and too large to be called a grove. But you don’t see a transmission node anywhere. Ah, suburbia.

Following Digit’s direction leads to a tree, and for a moment you wonder if he has done you astray until a closer check reveals the tree to be fake. You find a small hatch that is probably housing the signal repeater, but it’s locked behind a maglock keypad.