Twinkle Twinkle - Shell Game

Scarlet:
The day had started off easily enough, the Elf's comlink had been left on to accept any calls while she was taking a luxurious bath and watching the days news feed. There was considerable discussion and debate going down about a 'test firing' of an Ares weapons platform that had seen a 'mischeduled' THOR shot to rain down from space and strike some apparently deserted location out in the middle of nowhere just on the outskirts of Seattle out in one of the barrens. Ares was claiming some hacker by the name of 'Sid' an ex UCAS Special Forces member had been responsible for the early firing and some miscommunication about the event. One that had put some seriously bad press spot lights on Ares as well as some pressure to from the Corporate Court to explain how this had occurred. The event had taken place a few days ago but it would no doubt be a major news story for at least a few more days before all was forgotten. Amid this were reports in a sudden sharp rise in crime, from a break in of some guy's home and the kidnapping of what he claimed were his 'daughters'. Many were pointing that as they were SINless they couldn't be family and the running theory was that they were some sicko's sex slaves that had been rescued. The tabloids were still playing it up but the real news couldn't actually dig up any dirt and the situation was 'still under investigation' according to the local police. Beyond that some major house fire had destroyed a high end home not too far away, the home owner was missing while arson was suspected. Some little tidbit about a big blast down near the Ork underground and how police still had no leads on the case but most recently there had been a reported break in of the crime scene that police were now also investigating. To top it off just last night some group of shadowrunners had a major fight with KE Police at some other well to do home owner's house in what was apparently a failed assassination attempt, only really notable for the fact that some seriously heavy weaponry had been involved and KE Security, the current firm responsible for the city's police contract had suffered some serious losses.

It was then perhaps, no surprise to Scarlet that eventually, while still in the bath her comlink chimed with an incoming message. This turned out to be the latest of a small series of odd jobs requested by The Exchange.

At 10am tomorrow go to Judy's Dry Cleaners, tell them your there to retrieve something you forgot on Thursday under the name of Sandy. Do not open package.
2pm head to Bellview Cafe, ask for Joey. Hand Joey the package and tell him Miranda had fun at the ball game. Joey will hand you an envelope. Do not open the envelope.
4pm head to the Stuffer Shack on 36 Frank Street in Pullyup, ask to speak to the owner 'Big Rick'.
4:30pm call Xin's Noodle House, make a reservation for 3 for 6pm under the name Cassandra
6pm go to Xin's Noodle House, you are to expect 2 other individuals to join you. They are to pretend that they are old high school friends meeting you for a small birthday celebration in your honour.

Do this and you will be Karmically Rewarded.



Mississippi:
The day had been at least somewhat productive, your old friend Duke had been on the phone asking your opinion over his latest crazy idea for a movie and had been looking pick your brain about how to properly portray some fictional radical political group movement. You'd gotten paid a few nuyen for the time though it was hardly stellar, then again the work hadn't exactly been terribly hard and the payment was more of a way of saying 'thanks for the favour' than being intended as a real paying job. Work had been a little scare lately but today seemed to be your lucky day as you got another call from your friend 'Big Rick' later that evening. GM Note: You can also assume you recieve any of the news reports mentioned in the entry for Scarlet

'Hey bud! Listen, I've got a lead on some work if your interested. This guy I know is wanting some talent that sounded like it was right up your alley so I thought I'd give you the call first, see if you were interested. If so they want you to head to the following address <AR Link> by 6pm and tell the greeter that your there for the reservation under the name Cassandra. Apparently your to pretend your old high school buddies celebrating her birthday or something. Place is supposed to be pretty casual, nothing fancy.' there was a pause before he added 'Oh! Ya, and your supposed to bring some sort of flower arrangement as your token gift. Drop by this address <link> to pick it up before you head on over. The bouquet is apparently already prepared for you under the name Ted Bundy'.

Scarlet, who was laying back into the oversized tub, sat up and set down the glass of bubbly on the small ornate stand that stood next to the tub. The reaction was brought about by the news that she was watching on the larger screen that was installed on the other side of the large bathroom. She was getting her ‘fix’ as she called it. It seemed that something was up in the city over the last couple of days. An accidental THOR shot, to kidnappings, to a team of runners having it out with KE. Throw in a few destroyed homes in upscale neighborhoods and it sounded like a slightly busier than normal news day.

”Go figure, KE shows up with a knife to a gun fight. She said aloud to herself Shaking her head while reaching for the glass she had just set down. Tilting her head back she finished off its contents before setting it back down for the last time.

With a content sigh and then a slight inhale she leaned back and began once again to languish in the hot water that had been scented with Tahitian vanilla and lavender. ”As long as no one is blowing up my neighborhood I’m happy.” Though she could imagine the looks on her neighbors faces as the quiet neighborhood turned into the Barrons. A smile appeared if they would even wonder what to do if that episode happened or if they were armed. Not that it mattered. If anyone came into her home without approval they would be in for one hell of a surprise. That is if they lived long enough to actually be surprised.

When her private comlink chimed she looked over to the table with a raised eyebrow. Interesting. She thought as she looked at the message reading it carefully. ”Seems like I have some running around to do tomorrow. Better check up on a few things beforehand.”

Quote :

OOC: She will do some checking on the places listed. Find out where they are located, the neighborhoods, upscale or not upscale, if she needs/should/can carry a weapon without problems.

Data Search
Logic7 + Browse6 +Pushed 1 -1 untrained (data search) 13d6.hits(5)=2, 13d6.hits(5)=2, 13d6.hits(5)=2, 13d6.hits(5)=4

Basically a search on each of the 4 places. I know that Data Searches are supposed to be an extended test but I’m not sure on how to do that on Invisible castle yet. Or if it’s even possible.

The Next Day
At 9am Scarlet was ready to begin the days courier activities for the Exchange. While the job seemed pretty straight forward she, as always, was ready for the unexpected. Dressed in some Urban Casual clothes for the day’s activities she would look the part for wherever she went on the list. Under that she had on her FFBA armor. Over the clothes she was wearing her always in style Mortimer of London Greatcoat. Not only did it look good it offered decent protection. If she needed more, thought she probably didn’t, the armored jacket was in the back. Her go bag was packed and on the passenger seat. Inside that contained just about everything she would need for a job from security gear to weapons and ammo. In the smugglers compartment was her Ares Alpha along with several mini-grenades for the rifles grenade launcher.

Satisfied that she was all set she rolled out of her driveway and set the autopilot for the first destination. While on the way she looked at herself in the mirror and pulled her hair back into a pony tail. Doing this revealed her the pointed ears that revealed her as an Elf. She smiled examining her half Caucasian, half Japanese features. Once again she was thankful that she took after her mother’s side.

9:55am

Just before 10am she pulled into the lot where Judy's Dry Cleaners was located. At precisely 10 she walked through the door walking to the counter where she waited a moment for the clerk to finish with the large Ork that was ahead of her. She stepped forward when it was her turn. ”Yes I’m here to retrieve something I left her on Thursday. The name is Sandy.”

The small Asian lady who she assumed to be Judy gave her a slight nod as she stepped away from the counter. Taking several steps to the back wall she retrieved a package and handed it to her. With a nod and a verbal thank you Scarlet took the package and left the store.

2:00pm

At 2pm she entered the Bellview Café. Stepping to the counter she asked for Joey. When the man appeared from the back she gave him a nod as held out the package for him. ”This is for you. Miranda also wanted me to tell you that she had fun at the ball game.” She watched as he took the package and looked her over raising an eyebrow. She simply stood there as he did so. With a simple nod and a quick word of thanks he reached into his back pocket removed an envelope and handed it to her.

4:00pm

Scarlet walked into the Stuffer shack and discarded the coffee cup she has purchased from the café. It had been real coffee and the distinct aroma lingered in the cup as it disappeared into the trash can. Standing in line she asked to see Big Rick. She wasn’t sure what she was doing here but the message said to ask for him. She kept an eye on her chrono and set an alarm for 4:30 to call Xin’s Noodle House for the appointment.

Quote :

OOC: Not sure what’s happening here with big rick should have asked you last night.

4:30pm

When her alarm sounded she brought up the number for Xin’s and called. She set up a reservation for 3 at 6pm under the name Cassandra. ”Yes thank you very much. I’ll be there at 6.”

6:00pm

A few minutes before 6 she walked thought the doors of Xin’s Noodle House. Upon a visual inspection it looked to be a nice place. She walked up to the young woman who was sitting people. ”Yes I have a reservation at 6 for three people. The name is Cassandra.” With a quick check of the reservation book the woman found the reservation and led her to a table. Taking a seat she declined to order till the rest of the party arrived but did ask for a glass of water. While she waited she casually looked around the Noodle House taking in her surroundings.

Quote :

Perception check
Intuition 5 +Perception 4 +Attention Coprocessor 3 + Vision Enhancement 3 + Observe in detail 2 = 17 17d6.hits(5)=9

Big Rick glanced at Scarlet and quirked an eyebrow as he saw her before simply handing her a small sealed envelope. Inside was a credstick for 100 nuyen, approximately enough to cover the cost of the reservation for three along with food, parking and so on with maybe a bit of change on the side. Along with the credstick was a small match book and a hand written note. On the note was a very brief and slightly vague physical description of one of the men you were supposed to meet, along with the names you were supposed to expect. One was 'Ted Bundy' who's sole descriptor was that he would have a bouquet of flowers for you and the other was Phillip Lebois along with a basic description of what he would be wearing. The last line was double spaced from the rest of the text and simply said in plain, bold lettering: Burn Me

The Noodle House itself wasn't a very high end affair, though it was certainly directly aimed at the middle class and wouldn't turn away most people so long as they actually had the money to spend on food. The menu ranged from various nutrient enriched and flavoured soy and krill based derivatives, much like most standard fare these days, to several more expensive dishes that made the claim of using real meat, noddles and vegetables. The latter were of course naturally far more expensive but hardly out of the range of the occasional indulgence by some one who at least made a half decent wage. The staff was distinctly oriental, Korean mostly by the looks of things though there was some staff of chinese or other oriental origin as well. The staff here was primarily human, with actual waiters instead of drones. Cleanup however seemed to be mostly done by a pair of cleaner drones that buzzed about as unobtrusively as possible. Off to one side was a public washroom, while another path way lead off to the kitchen which was a closed off area of the restaurant instead of an 'open concept' where a customer could see into the kitchen itself. The decor of the place was definitely a generic oriental setup that didn't really seem to point to any actual culture but rather what most North American citizens tended to expect in this day and age, pointing to the fact that the menu, while reasonable was perhaps not entirely made up of all authentic dishes. Beyond that the door had one ageing Ork at the door standing guard and was the only one of the staff who seemed to not be clearly of oriental decent. The man was clearly there mostly for show and ran the weapons check as discreetly as could be managed, though the scanner he was using appeared to be at least 5 years old if not more and likely wouldn't catch the latest weapons, much less ones designed to slip past scanners of it's own time. While he remained entirely polite and professional while customers were looking, it was clear when they were not (or at least he thought no one was looking) he quickly adopted the look of someone who hated their job, mostly because he seemed horrifically bored of it.

The time consulting with Duke reminded Mississippi of when the two of them were both young men working at Fuchi; brainstorming for brainstorming's sake. "I mean it's genius making She Wore a Yellow Ribbon be against a policlub instead of indians, especially setting it after all the mess in Chicago. And I really like the part about the Cybercowboy being a part of Lone Star for this one. But really, do you have to go with an all elf bug rights group? I mean it's a bit overdone. I'd go for a mix of folks, it'd make much more sense. Anyway, I've got to run, I'll holler at ya later Duke." Mississippi knew the money was more of a gift than a payment, but he also knew that the Duke really did appreciate his input, so he didn't complain too much.

Big Rick wrote:

'Hey bud! Listen, I've got a lead on some work if your interested. This guy I know is wanting some talent that sounded like it was right up your alley so I thought I'd give you the call first, see if you were interested. If so they want you to head to the following address by 6pm and tell the greeter that your there for the reservation under the name Cassandra. Apparently your to pretend your old high school buddies celebrating her birthday or something. Place is supposed to be pretty casual, nothing fancy.' there was a pause before he added 'Oh! Ya, and your supposed to bring some sort of flower arrangement as your token gift. Drop by this address to pick it up before you head on over. The bouquet is apparently already prepared for you under the name Ted Bundy'.

The call from Big Rick outside of their bi-weekly poker night was a bit of a surprise, at least until he began describing the job. "Alright Biggun, sounds good. You're still buying the beer next week, so don't think you're copping out on that one just because you won last time. I'll talk to you later." Despite having been in the northwest for 20 years, his roots from the corporate backwaters of the CSA in Alabama always showed through in his accent. Despite this, he was well spoken and only used the southern slang when amongst actual friends.

He looked up both the meeting place and where he would pick up his new identity. After looking at the results, he pulls on the more secretive of his two form fitting body armors and set the stealth coating to as invisible as possible. and pulls on some clothes best suited for your average wageslave trying to be casual. This effectively hid the gear he would actually bring, stuffing the rest in a backpack. Geared up, he gets into his rover after locking down the house and drives from his house on Federated Boeing land to the general area of the florist, letting his vehicle handle the mundane traffic. Along the way he ducks through an alley or two to change color scheme on his vehicle from a sedate blue and black to shiny black and then to looking like a weathered green that had looked new years ago. Along the way, he looked for information on his destinations (Datasearch 1 +Logic 4 +PuSHeD 1 +Browse 6 Data Search - meeting place (12d6.hits(5) =3 hits) and Datasearch - florist (12d6.hits(5)=6 hits) ).

He stops at the florist and walks in to the counter. "Ted Bundy. I have an order ready?" Once he has the flowers, he heads to the next location, making sure all of his gear and cyberware is in hidden mode (except for his Meta Link).

(will add more after conversation with Kesslan)

Scarlet set the glass of water down in front of her as she finished looking around. Her table afforded her a good view of most of the establishment including the entrance. It was a pretty run of the mill place as noodle shops go. It was a welcome surprise to have actual living waiters instead of drones. It was a nice touch that had fallen out of practice of the the years. Drones tended to be more cooperative, if they were programmed that way, and probably less expensive than a person in the long run.

Letting out a slight sigh she looked at the door again and caught the Ork guard in another episode of boredom. though when he aught her looking his way his demeanor changed and started looking interested again. a corner of her mouth turned up as she took another drink as she remembered the descriptions on the note she had received from Big Rick. The note was now a pile of ash that had since blown in the wind but the descriptions were entered onto her memory as well as her comlink. Not that she needed to put them there as they were pretty straight forward..

I hope they get here soon. She thought as she brought up the chrono in her AR and then closing it out. They are a few minutes late already. I'll give them an hour. She finished her thought. If they missed the meeting than the Exchange will deal with them.

Arriving a few minutes early, one man arrives dressed in a low key business suit, carrying a briefcase and a small wrapped box with a bow on it. After checking with the host at the door he's directed over to Scarlet's table. "Cassandra, it's wonderful to see you!" he exclaims as he approaches. "It's been so long, and here I've brought you a small present. Just promise you won't open it here ok? It's a little special something just for you." a small tag on the box he offers you reads: To my best friend Cassandra, Love: Bazil. "I see Ted hasn't made it here yet, running a little behind as usual I suppose. I hear work keeps him pretty busy these days."

Mississippi considers breaking into the resturant's security system, but after a quick survey of his programs decides he needs to make a few purchases first. So instead he walks into the place precisely on time, and after getting directions to Cassandra's table, he smiles when he sees her. "Well happy birthday Cassandra, it's good to see you." He hands her an arrangement of flowers with the card so she can see it upon taking it. He looks to her as if expecting a "re-introduction" to their mutual friend.

Scarlet’s attention was brought back to the entrance when a man entered wearing a low keyed suit. Looking him over he matched the description that was on the match book. She kept eyes on him as he was directed to her table. A well practiced, yet genuine, smile appeared as he addressed her by the appropriate name that had been set up.

Standing up she accepted the small box and looked it over quickly. Something on the note caught her eye. ”To my best friend Cassandra, Love: Bazil.” She read the note and continued to smile. Though she didn’t show it the name put her on guard. The name Bazil, which was on the card, didn’t match the one she had been given: Phillip Lebois.

She cocked her head to the side while setting the small box down on the table next to her drink. ” Thanks, how thoughtful. You know you didn’t need to get me a gift but the sentiment is wonderful.”

Sitting back down Bazil mentioned their other contact. "I see Ted hasn't made it here yet, running a little behind as usual I suppose. I hear work keeps him pretty busy these days.

She looked at her chrono again and nodded. ”Yeah to hear him talk about it one would think they are slave drivers. To be honest I don’t know why Ted continues to work there. Yeah the pay is pretty good but the conditions are terrible. “ She kept up the small talk as she watched him for any signs of nervousness.

Quote :

Scarlet will attempt to judge his intentions
CHA 8 + INT 5 = 13d6.hits(5)=2

A few seconds later her attention was again brought to the Noodle House’s entrance as another man entered. This one was carrying flowers.

This must be Ted. She thought as she looked at the man who also had been directed to her table. She once again stood as another gift was offered to her this time an arrangement of flowers. ”Ted you shouldn’t have, you know I don’t have a green thumb.” She said lightly with a natural giggle as she smelld the flowers before setting them down next to the box.

She looked back to Ted who was still standing. ”Sit mister.” She said with a mock tone. ”You don’t need to wait for me to sit first. Bazil and I were just talking about how work has been keeping you busy.” When she said the name Bazil she indicated the first arrival as she took her seat again while tucking a loose strand of dark red hair back behind her ear.

They were finally all present. Now it would begin.

EDIT: Made some editing corrections.

Mississippi smiles slightly. "Never too busy for friends though. Right Bazil?" He tries to get a feel for the other two (Judge Intentions: 3 hits)). "We going to eat first, or start with the celebration?" Of course they all knew the celebration was in fact some sort of job offer, so only so much pretense is necessary. Mississippi, back when he was acting as a Mr. Johnson for Fuchi's Special Projects Bureau, would often use a very similar set up to this one, usually in a place where he had plenty of backup in place in case things went sideways. he doubted the Johnson would be any differently. Of course the problem was he didn't know who the Johnson was, the woman or the man.

'Bazil' grinned at Scarlet when she picked up on the difference in the notes, and while on the surface the man was speaking or listening as was expected, on the matrix side your public coms got a ping from a 'Phillip Lebois' requesting to chat. Equally even the slightest check would see that the comlink belonged to 'Bazil' who was seated at the table with both of you. Judging the man's true intent was hard at the moment however as he was clearly acting out a set role, rather than mentioning anything about the real reason the three of you were here, and he seemed fairly skilled at it. "Ted! Glad to see you. Personally I think placing an order would be good first, might as well have something to enjoy while we celebrate don't you think?" he asks with a smile "And consider this my treat. I managed to get this time together approved as an official business meeting, so the company is going to be picking up the tab on this one."

Watching the men at the table begin their small talk Scarlet reached for her glass and took a sip of its contents. Surprisingly her public comm received a ping from the name of the man she was supposed to meet, Phillip Lebois. Bringing it up on her image-link she clearly saw that it was from 'Bazil'.

With a raised eyebrow she gave the two men a slight nod as she set the glass back down in front of her. As Bazil/Phillip kept up with the bit of acting like this was a small party among close friends. What surprised her was that he was pretty good at it. Maybe even good enough to keep up with her. With his offer to pick up the tab the same sincere smile appeared as she flashed it to the two of them. "Bazil that's wonderful. Lets hope the company doesn't find out. At least they wont from me." She said with a small laugh. "While I was waiting for you two I looked over the menu. Activating the option on her comm he let the establishments AR projections to be visible. "The menu is pretty standard for a place like this but they do have a more upscale section if one is willing to pay." She kept up with the act. At the minimum she would at least get a good meal out of it.

When the food had been ordered and the waitress had moved on she looked at Bazil. "So my friend how has work been? Have they got you working on anything interesting."

While 'Bazil' chatted it up with the others openly, the chat window once accepted by both parties told an entirely different story. "Oh nothing terribly interesting to be honest. You know how accounting is. Just staring at numbers all day, though it does pay well." he says with a friendly grin "Though at least the part about accountants leading boring lives is only half true. Boring at work maybe but you should see some of em after work!" he says with a laugh before pausing to take a long sip from a provided glass of water as he looks over the AR Menu.

<Chatbox>
<User: PL> I'm glad you two could come, and even more glad my friend could find people on such short notice. If your interested, I have a job for you both. There are several facilities we have noticed that are putting out some interesting activity over the Matrix. What's more interesting is the data from all the sites is the exact same, but only one can be the actual source. Right now we simply want to try and find out which location is the real deal. 10k Up front for expenses on credstick, another 5k up front to each to an account of your choosing for the work with another 10k each on completion of the job, which we want done in 3 weeks. If you don't spend the full amount of the expense account, consider what ever is left to be a bonus.

"Oh, I say, number 22 looks rather good, portion is a bit big for me though, either of you care to split it?" what makes it equally clear that its hard to read 'Bazil's reactions is that the man doesn't even miss a single social queue as he rambles on, even while sending out the message on the private chat. Either he was very good, or simply very well prepared. Possibly both. The facade he put out to the public at least came across as genuine, yet there was absolutely no doubt he had entirely ulterior motives for being here.

Scarlet kept pace with the man in the act of doing something while doing something else. In this case it was pretending to celebrate her birthday instead of actually having a meet with a Johnson. She laughed slightly with a genuine smile at his joke about accountants and their after work activities. "I'll bet. Thought the same reference could be said at just about anyone. Who knows what one does on the off hours other than their close friends..." She paused for a moment as her gaze went from one man to the other. "Then again maybe even the most outlandish concept could be possible." She said with a wink to the both of them as she also began to look over the AR menu.

She received his chat as read it over quickly. So far it seemed pretty straight forward. Though she had worked the shadows enough to know that nothing was straight forward. If one thought that they didn't last long as the shadows ate they up and didn't spit them back out. She began to wonder what the angle was. A possible 15k each wasn't an amount to just some go rough up some punks in the Barrons.

She knew she wouldn't get anymore info from him unless she agreed to the job. Johnson's liked to keep job info confidential as much as possible till they had an agreement.

She continued to look at the AR Menu and let out a content sigh. "Sure I'll split it. I think I'll go with number 35 and offer it up to be split as well. I hope you have a taste for the spicy stuff?" She sent a message back from he public comm.


What exactly are we looking at here? 25k for what looks to be a simple scouting job seems a bit much, which in my experience nothing is ever simple. If your friend can make it 7.5k up front for each and 20k on the back end I'm in. I'm assuming your friends are looking for people with experience in matters such as these. If my name came up they already know my qualifications. The extra bit of compensation will help in the event any complications arise.



She left it unsaid that complications generally arise on a run. It was just the size of them that change. Anyone who ran the shadows knew this. She waited for the other one to speak up or to enter the chat. Her smile at being with her "friends" never left her face.

Quote :

Negotiation roll
CHA 8 + Influence 5 + Tailored Pheromones 3 + First Impression 2 = 18 dice 18d6.hits(5)=7

Bazil considered the question about spicy food "I think I'll pass, it's not agreed with me recently to be honest." he says with what appears to be complete honesty. "How about we compromise on number 36? It's quite similar but not as spicy?" he suggests "Or I suppose if you have your heart set on that dish my dear we can always ask them to tone down the spice a little."

<Chatbox>
<User: PL> Actually what your looking at is 20k up front if you include the expense stick we are fronting you along with the down payment, and another 20k on the tail end, making it a total of 40k split two ways. Beyond that we don't know what we are dealing with and that is why we are fronting an unusually large payment for a 'scouting mission' as you so put it. My employers feel the offered sum is more than sufficient given the current market rates for above average assets. We will however consider additional funds towards mission costs so long as we feel they are reasonable requests. Depending on what you feel your needs are, we may be able to arrange for some of the equipment you feel is necessary to be provided. However the payment itself is non negotiable. If we expected it to be simple, we wouldn't have waited to engage the services of seasoned professionals, we would simply have gone to the first people who came along and offered them considerably less.

Scarlet looked at number 36 on the menu. It was listed as spicy but not as hot as her first choice. She tucked a loose strand of dark red hair behind a pointed ear while giving the man, acting as Bazil, a nod. The nod was conferring more than just an agreement on food. "Sure Bazil," She said rather happily keeping up with the act. "That sounds good to me. Is there anything else the three of us may want to try, an appetizer perhaps or something to drink to celebrate the occasion? What do you think Ted?"

She reached forward to the flowers and picked then up taking a sniff of the fragrant blossoms. "These are so nice. I'm surprises you remembered they were my favorite." Setting them back down she began composting another message.



Understood. With the option of additional funds and equipment, if deemed necessary for the job, your offer is accepted on my end. I, of course, can not speak for Ted. When he does decide what can you tell us or myself. if he declines, are the details of the job? You mentioned that you weren't sure exactly what your employers are expecting us to deal with."

She sat back in her chair taking in the two wondering why Ted hadn't spoke up yet. 20k is a decent payout. I wonder what the deal is and why they wanted experienced runners for this. From what he's said so far it looks like it's just checking out a few places. There's got to be more to it. She thought.

Kesslan wrote:

"Ted! Glad to see you. Personally I think placing an order would be good first, might as well have something to enjoy while we celebrate don't you think?" he asks with a smile "And consider this my treat. I managed to get this time together approved as an official business meeting, so the company is going to be picking up the tab on this one."

"Always glad to eat on the company's dime, Bazil. Thanks for that." He smiles genuinely, his entire person. He slid easily into the corporate culture, almost as easily as he could the streets. He was by nature a social chameleon, using his accent as a boon, not a hinderence. The improvements he'd had since his Fuchi days certainly helped matters. He sent the accept signal to his commlink with a brief thought about how things used to be. How the mighty decker had fallen, supplanted by the hacker. Of course the reality now was that every runner had to be at least savvy about such things. He'd undergone a crash course from The Duke before the last movie. He was playing a combat hacker and needed to be able to manage the task. It had been most instructive. Now he was much better at it than those early days.

{Chatbox}
login: Mike S. Sessppi
password: *****************************
---Connected---
{User: PL} I'm glad you two could come, and even more glad my friend could find people on such short notice. If your interested, I have a job for you both. There are several facilities we have noticed that are putting out some interesting activity over the Matrix. What's more interesting is the data from all the sites is the exact same, but only one can be the actual source. Right now we simply want to try and find out which location is the real deal. 10k Up front for expenses on credstick, another 5k up front to each to an account of your choosing for the work with another 10k each on completion of the job, which we want done in 3 weeks. If you don't spend the full amount of the expense account, consider what ever is left to be a bonus.

{User: MS} By the statement 'right now' I assume there will be an optional follow up portion to this as well, with to be negotiated fees? Or will that be outsourced to other parties?

{User: Amanda} What exactly are we looking at here? 25k for what looks to be a simple scouting job seems a bit much, which in my experience nothing is ever simple. If your friend can make it 7.5k up front for each and 20k on the back end I'm in. I'm assuming your friends are looking for people with experience in matters such as these. If my name came up they already know my qualifications. The extra bit of compensation will help in the event any complications arise.


{User: PL}Actually what your looking at is 20k up front if you include the expense stick we are fronting you along with the down payment, and another 20k on the tail end, making it a total of 40k split two ways. Beyond that we don't know what we are dealing with and that is why we are fronting an unusually large payment for a 'scouting mission' as you so put it. My employers feel the offered sum is more than sufficient given the current market rates for above average assets. We will however consider additional funds towards mission costs so long as we feel they are reasonable requests. Depending on what you feel your needs are, we may be able to arrange for some of the equipment you feel is necessary to be provided. However the payment itself is non negotiable. If we expected it to be simple, we wouldn't have waited to engage the services of seasoned professionals, we would simply have gone to the first people who came along and offered them considerably less.

{User: MS} No, we're looking at 10K for expenses, which we can keep the change on, plus 5K each up front, 10K on the back. An expense budget isn't the same as pay and we both know it. I don't think 7.5K each up front is asking too much, especially for short notice, nor is 15K each on the back end. Fast, cheap, and good: you can only have it two ways. I think we can all agree that fast and good is probably better in the long run. Tell you what, since you already objected to that, let's go with the 5K each, plus 10K expense up front and 20K each on the back end as a compromise.

He fully expected a counter offer of 15K on the back, but if he had offered that, it would have been 12.5K, just to keep the negotiating power with the Johnson.

Yogismith wrote:

Scarlet looked at number 36 on the menu. It was listed as spicy but not as hot as her first choice. She tucked a loose strand of dark red hair behind a pointed ear while giving the man, acting as Bazil, a nod. The nod was conferring more than just an agreement on food. "Sure Bazil," She said rather happily keeping up with the act. "That sounds good to me. Is there anything else the three of us may want to try, an appetizer perhaps or something to drink to celebrate the occasion? What do you think Ted?"
{Chatbox}
{User: Amanda} Understood. With the option of additional funds and equipment, if deemed necessary for the job, your offer is accepted on my end. I, of course, can not speak for Ted. When he does decide what can you tell us or myself. if he declines, are the details of the job? You mentioned that you weren't sure exactly what your employers are expecting us to deal with."

"Oh I think maybe one cocktail wouldn't be a bad thing, but I'd definitely like to get some house special eggrolls. That way Cassandra and I get a taste of spicy without killing Bazil's palate. According to the menu they make them in-house every day and it's for spicy food lovers."

Assuming he gets an answer back that is better than 10K on the back end, he also agrees. "Sure I'll share with you Cassandra. I'll get a number 17 and you can both have some. Those orange sauce noodles sound really good. Sounds like it could be fun." His drawl was subtle, but noticeable. Despite that his speech was always impeccable.

{User: MS}: Agreed then. Got some details for us?

<User: PL> On the question of additional work, the answer will depend considerably on what, if anything of interest you find. All we want right now is to find out just who has set up these shells, and what they are up to. Right now it looks like things are going on that are of interest to my employer. That said it could turn out to be something we don't actually care about, at which point we will simply leave things be. If on the other hand it is something of interest, we will assess the situation and proceed from there. Personally I prefer to keep the same parties on board for related jobs and work things out accordingly from there.

As to your request for an increase of payment to the tune of an extra 20,000 beyond projected costs for no worthwhile reason, the answer is a flat out no. I have already offered several concessions in covering your expenses which are normally something for you to deal with out of your own pay. So you can either take the job, or you can walk and I will simply find another team.

"Well by all means if you want to order an appetizer or the like for yourself don't let me stop you." 'Bazil' responded in an entirely amicable tone that was a stark contrast to the man supposedly making the responses over the matrix chat. As it was he didn't even seem remotely distracted by any other thing than simply having a nice dinner with two good friends, rather than carrying on two distinctly different conversations at the same time. "Like I said, it's all on the companies tab, and their used to paying a fairly decent sum for meals during meetings and the like. They won't split hairs just because you wanted to add in an appetizer or desert."

Scarlet let a bit of emotion through in her facial expression and even then it was only a raised eyebrow at Ted's counter offer to the additional job expenses that she had managed to get for this recon job. She wasn't sure what he was thinking but she knew that the Johnson in front of them was a pro. He wasn't going to cave easily, no matter if they were seasoned runners or not.

Bazil's reply wasn't surprising or unexpected. It was to the point in a way that one would have no problem understanding it. Take the job or walk. She was still surprised by the skill of everyone present by the smooth table talk despite what was transpiring in their private talk. Talk about appetizers and drinks continued as well as subtle hints that were laid in to the conversation about the job.

Scarlet dismissed the AR Menu and smiled as she leaned forward resting her forearms on the table as if she was engaging in the table talk "I'm so glad you two could make time to celebrate my birthday with me. Like I said before Bazil the fact that the company wont mind a bit of added expense for the meal is wonderful. I've missed you two so much. It would be great if we can do this again at a later date. Lets just not let so much time go by till the next time."

She laid a real smile on them as she played with her words. She had already accepted the job and wanted to reinforce that with the Johnson. The ball was now in Teds court so to speak. She waited to see how he handled it. She silently hoped that he didn't blow it for the both of them. Though one would never know by the look in her face.

Mississippi's face doesn't drop what so ever from the rebuke. He'd made his bid and it had failed. There was no harm in that.
{Chatbox}
{User: MS} Fair enough then. I'm in.
No need for anything further. No recriminations, no sass back and forth, just agreement or disagreement.

Mississippi smiled. "Oh I think we'll be seeing more of each other in the near future. I've got a good feeling about it"

In the background, ordering dinner seemed to simply become a backdrop for the conversation going on in AR. Few if any at the table seemed to miss appropriate queues and keep up a low background chatter while discussing what to order, placing the orders in question and then simply keeping up idle chatter while waiting for the food to be served.

<User: PL> Excellent. Here is what little information we have on the locatiosn we would like you to check out for us <File: Christmas Party Photos. Download Y/N?>. They are all here locally in Seattle though they are a little spread out. We've not noticed any security measures in place as such, but there must be something as a previous team we hired failed to report back. Given that our understanding was that the team in question was fairly new, my superiors have simply chalked it up to inexperience. That said it's expected that there may be some lethal measures in place and odds are good that any decoy locations are in fact traps of some sort. We don't care how you get the information, but as previously stated we simply wish to find out which is the real facility. From there we need to assess if the situation warrants further attention. If you find anything of interest you may contact this number <Contact Profile Areus has been added to your contact list> which will remain active for only 2 hours after you initiate contact. While we would prefer you not move against the genuine facility should you find it, we understand that circumstances may make it impossible not to while attempting to find the information we need. As such you are authorized to take what steps you deem necessary including salvage of useful data, personnel, equipment or should the need arise, complete elimination of all such. Your actions at that point will then be subject to further negotiated payment for services rendered, with larger sums being made available for useful salvage.

That said our primary concern at the moment is simply finding out who is behind the shells and what their true purpose is.

Mississippi hit yes on the download and shifted the files to his Battlebuddy.
It was about as straightforward as you could get, which meant the hairs on the back of his neck were bristling.
{User: MS} Any chance of getting the street names, and any other information you might be willing to part with, of that former team? Following up how they failed may give us some idea as to how they died and how to avoid their fate. It might also give us another avenue of finding the information that you're paying for.

Bazil let out a soft 'Ah' of appreciation as the appetizers and drinks started showing up. "Excellent." he seemed outwardly in a good mood, and certainly didn't seem to indicate any reason why he actually wouldn't be. Still it had long been obvious that the facade he kept in the real world didn't necessarily match his actual mood. Of course with text as a medium it was hard to really tell what some one's real mood was, but no doubt he was probably actually fairly happy to keep things moving along.

<User PL> Those are not details I have at this time, nor have I been lead to believe they are relevant as other assets confirmed they had all suffered terminal cases of lead poisoning. The site they last inspected has already been confirmed as shut down and cleared out. It took us quite some time to track down new potential locations again as a result. I would suggest you act as if they know you are coming but I suspect they have already anticipated that people would get curious and we have no reason to believe they know who sent the initial team. That said I also wouldn't worry about it too much as those sent before you were decidedly amateurs and probably did something incredibly stupid to get themselves caught. Which is why the task was assigned to me to oversee.

Scarlet sent the downloaded file to her to her primary comm as it was more secure then her public one. A second later when it was finished she erased the file from her public comm.

She continued with the fake public meeting as the food arrived. She was about to ask the same question that Ted asked in an effort to fish for some more information but the J's response kept her from following those lines. From the sound of it if he had the info he would have given it to them.

{User:Amanda}
Any idea why an inexperienced team was used for what seems like a low key yet important job? That team certainly alerted who we're now looking into that someone is looking for them. How many of the sites had the previous team checked out and are they on the list? Was anything of substance found? Sometimes if one isn't careful they are sloppy.

The J quietly started into his meal as he carried on the conversation in the AR. Every so often he would speak up about something trivial such as a supposed work day he'd had or how the boss had just awarded a rather nice bonus, and perhaps if you ever decided to change jobs he could find you work in accounting.

<User PL>
Because they were cheap and expendable, where as you are expensive and less so. Different people have different methods and results will vary sometimes. You can invest in a starter group sometimes and have it pay off but you never really know for sure until you give them the chance to pull through, or screw up. I prefer to stick to the tried and true runners who have a bit of a name already and let the others sort the rest out.

Either way the site they last checked was shut down and these three new ones popped up. That, based on past patterns tells us the group prior to you found the right one and now new decoys were deployed after the old operation was shut down and relocated. That is all we know. It's up to you to figure out which of the three is the genuine site.

Scarlet nodded at something that the J had said aloud to keep up the act. She took a bit of her meal and smiled. While it wasn't an upscale establishment the food was quite good.

{User: Amanda}
Understood. It looks like Ted and I have some work ahead of us. Not to mention getting to know each other a bit as neither of us have worked together before. Not that that poses a problem mind you. We have the emergency number you gave us for when we do find the place. May we use this current number to contact you for anything else after this meeting is concluded?