Moral Test

Mist slips quietly through rainy night, much like her namesake. Nearing the Del Toro, she pauses to study the place, letting her senses drink in the night, searching for anything odd, anything out of place. A crack of lightning lights the night, revealing her for a brief moment. Small, even tiny, for a human, the lighting reflects brightly off the polished durasteel that covers nearly a quarter of her face and covers the rest of it with a webwork of dark shadows, tracing the map of valleys and ridges caused by her scars. Nodding slightly to herself, she continues across the crowded parking lot towards the door.

She pauses again, just outside, and reaches behind her head to touch a small button on the hilt of her sword. The blade flickers for a moment, then vanishes from sight as its reactive skin obeys her unspoken command. Stepping inside, she removes her overcoat, a heavy thing of black leather and silver studs. Underneath she wears a tight, dark grey bodysuit - not quite form fitting, but close enough that it doesn't leave that much to the imagination. A bandoleer, loaded with a number of small pouchs, crosses her chest.

Drapping the coat over one arm, she walks over to the bar and asked the female bar-tender about the Johnson party, noding politely at the answer. "Thanks." She fishes into one of her pouchs and pulls out a single nuyen note - hard currency, a rare site indeed these days - which is folded into a small origami frog. She slides the bill across to the bartender as a tip, then moves off, making her way across the crowded floor to the room she had indicated.

When Neko hit the scene, it was obvious, despite the loud music and corp wageslaves going on about their afterwork fun. She enjoyed the attention, honestly. With a catlike stride, the Japanese woman walked up to the bar, seemingly oblivious to the people staring at her large cat ears, the whiskers sprouting from her nose, her cat's eyes, and the furry tail sticking out the back of the chameleon suit she was wearing. She'd left her katana and other weapons at home when coming to the meet. Well, almost all her other weapons.

She had a shot of whiskey at the bar, before heading back to the meeting room with a glass of milk. When she entered, she smiled at the others, before taking a seat, that tail of hers swaying back and forth the entire time, as though it had a mind of its own. When she speaks, it is with a purring voice, with a clear Japanese accent on her English.

"We have much to learn before we settle a price. What corporation does your husband work for? And how, exactly, do you wish us to 'take care' of him? Is there a preferrrred method? Or a preferrrred place or time? Do you want him simply disappeared, or do you want him to be found somewhere? Is there a timeframe on this operation, or do we have time to plan it out, and organize it so that it happens when you have an iron clad alibi? Is collateral damage an issue? Properrrty damage? As it stands, I do not think we could do this run for less than ten thousand."

--
Negotiating a better price. Negotiation 3 + Charisma 3 + Empathy soft 3 = 9d6 = 3 Hits

Mist leans back slightly, happy that someone else has stepped forward to take the lead in the negotiations. Chatting folks up wasn't her strong suit - the scars always seemed to put folks off and even with those that didn't mind or notice, she always seemed to manage to put her foot in her mouth somehow. Still... a quick mental command to her comm pulled up the texter and she punched in a quick message. A mental flick sent it winging through cyber.

With a faint mental bing, a scroll appears in the upper left part of Neko's AR display, and unrolls itself.

(all in japanese)To: Kasha-san (OOC note: Neko would (I imagine) recognize the reference: Kasha is a japanese cat demon who takes away the dead - seemed appropriate)
From: Shadows of the morning

Greetings - it is always a relief to see one of our people, here in the benighted west. I look forward to working with you. Point out life insurance to her - she can pay us anything we ask and still make a profit off his death if she wants. Might get her caught if she takes out a new policy, but that's her worry not ours. Also - I would think she'll tell us, but you left off name in your questions.

Edit(forgot to include this): Message sent, Mist sends a mental command to her eye, causing the slit in her cyber that marked it to change from blue to red as it shifted over to thermographic. She takes a moment to study the Johnson carefully, looking for any of the telltales of dishonesty her sensai had drummed into her so often in training. Was this woman being being straight with them?

Judge intentions check to get a feel for the Johnson's honesty: Intuition 5 + Charisma 1 + Lie detector soft 5 + using thermo vision 2 = 13 = 5 hits

Ike slipped in largely unnoticed. He was almost unarmed, too. His pulsar and sniper were naturally at home with his gear, but his colt was hidden amidst the leather of his clothes. I don't like this meeting room. He was walking from the bar to the room. Too easy for them to cut us off. Maybe we should have had someone stay outside. Too late now, I guess. He put aside the idea for later, maybe the next meeting with Mrs. Johnson. Two Johnson's in a row? Maybe that's the standard fake name or something. He entered the meeting room fairly late, having missed the briefing, but in time to get the general idea. Just 5000 for murder? Maybe I should get a new job.

Mist nods slightly and leans forward, resting her elbows on the table and fixing the Johnson with a hard stare with her good eye. "Sounds straight forward. But I gotta ask - what if the PI is wrong? It seems convincing, but mistakes happen and if there is something else is going on... you must have loved him once or you would never have married him. If, IF, we find proof that he is innocent, would you pay a matching fee for that, rather then what you hired us for? Because if you won't, there is no reason for us to look or to report it if we do find anything, since we would be eliminating our own paycheck. And that means you might make a horrible mistake."

Having had her say, Mist leans back in her chair and crosses her arms. As she waits for the Johnson to respond, she pings Neko with another message.

(in japeneses) To: Kasha-san
From: Shadows of the morning

Good work. I'll let you keep doing the debate over price - I'm no good at that stuff. See if we can get a 'price of silence' out of her. We haven't accepted the job and I've recorded enough that we could turn her into LoneStar. Maybe angle for her aid in getting information or access to Saeder-Krupp if we ever need it rather then going for more nuyen, so it feels less like blackmail.

In Japanese, Neko fires off a quick message to Mist.

To: Shadows of the Morning
From: Nekomusimi
Subject: Negotiations

While a tempting proposition, I doubt any of us are established enough as a group to afford getting a reputation for blackmailing our Johnsons. Moreover, such behavior would cast a bad light on our Fixers, as well. Hold that information in reserve, in case she tries to screw us. Rep and Cred is everything in this business, too.

--Neko

Nodding her head, Neko smiles at Mrs. Johnson. "We will need your husband's name, a recent picture, and preferably a copy of all the information the private investigator gave you. We might be in different fields than you and your husband, but it is also true that one's Reputation and Credibility are one's strongest assets here. If you give us the information we need, then I can assure you that your problem will be dealt with in a suitable manner. After completion of the mission, what means do you wish for us to get in touch with you?"

Neko reaches out to take the credstick, and nods her head in agreement. "One doesn't live very long if they bite the hand that feeds them. Double-crosses should be left to the villains in cheesy spy trids, don't you think? In the real world, they just make people want to see the perpetrator die in unpleasant ways." The message was simple. So long as Mrs. J didn't screw them over, they wouldn't screw her over.

"Mrs. Johnson, I think we have come to an agreement. We'll begin our preparations immediately." Rising, she offered the woman a bow, the kind that wageslaves in Japanacorps typically made to their superiors.

--
Using Etiquette to be smooth. Charisma 3 + Etiquette 3 + Empathy soft 3 = 9d6 = 4 hits
--

A small message pops up in Neko's AR:

(in japanese)To: nekomusimi
From: Shadow of the Morning

Sorry, not gonna take that from her.


Mist frowns and glares as the woman finished, and leans forward agressively. "Just a sec, here. You are hiring us for wetwork as well ma'am, don't forget that. And since you've choosen to threaten us, lets make the balance of power little more clear here, just in case you didn't follow what the cat was saying." She reaches into one of her pouches and pulls out the small circular disk of a holo-progjector, setting it on the table and plugging it into her comm. The projector springs to life and small image of Mrs Johnson herself appears above the table. It cycles rapidly through several scenes.

...

"So I want you and your team to 'take care' of my husband. I will pay your team 5,000 for the job."

...

"My husband and I work for Saeder-Krupp in the Advertising Department. I am not particularly concerned with how you take care of my husband however, an 'accident' or a 'plant' causing death would suffice. "

...

"My husbands name is Didier Muller."

...

Mist retrieve the projector and tucks it back away, then leans towards the Johnson. "I hadn't planned on showing you that or ever letting you know it existed until you threatened us. I've every reason to keep that file safe and private - it incriminates my colleges as well, after all, though I myself don't appear in it. But if I receive word that a hit has been taken out on any of us or if any of us die in mysterious circumstances, the file will be forwarded by a third party to LoneStar. And just in case you find a really good lawyer, it will also be sent to every employee in the Saeder-Krupp advertising division, and as many of your husband's friends and family as I can manage - if we're lucky, one of them will return the favor for us even if your other team does its job. And given that you will still owe us the balance of the fee once the job is done, I strongly suggest you provide contact information. Given that we know your employer, your husband, and an employee of yours, I promise we can find it anyways, so no reason not to be up front about it."

OOC: And there are the fabulous, blunt, Charisma '1' negotitating skills at work. Sorry in advance for pissing off the client guys.

Heap hardly pays attention to the negotiations once Mrs. Johnson's file is received. He's got a name, an image, and a job to do, and even if negotiations go south, he's got a lead on some valuable paydata as it is. Keeping his commlink in passive mode, he unsubscribes it from his Deck (leaving it on 'maunal' - it'll actually vibrate and ring if anything important comes through) from it and starts operating the latter in hidden mode.

Heap loads his Analyze, Browse, and Stealth software suites, heads immediately for the nearest public Saeder-Krupp node in AR, keeping an ear on the conversation as he does so. He uses the name "Didier Muller," the supplied image, and what little he knows (target's job field, location, martial status, etc.) to dig up anything he can legitimately from S-K's files. He's particularly interested in finding out how or where he might get in touch with Mr Muller - a home address, work address, commcode, anything. This sort of browsing isn't exactly Heap's specialty, but he needed access to Muller's personal files, and that meant first finding Muller.

((Data Search + Browse = 7d6 = 1 hit . . . will continue until I get some contact info for Muller))

In flawless Japanese, Neko turns on Mist with a terrible glint in her catlike eyes. From her fingernails claws extend outward, handrazors, by the looks of them. When she speaks, it is clear she is furious with Mist. "You insolent pig! You don't even have the manners of a gaijin, and you're an idiot to boot! If you can't show more decorum than a troll, then have the decency to keep your mouth shut or I will make you my new scratching post! Of course she was going to threaten us! That is part of the game. Now sit down, shut up, and don't speak again until I tell you to."

Turning back to the Johnson, the claws retract, and she bows again, switching back to English, and clearly trying to smooth things over. "My apologies for my associate, Mrs. Johnson. Unfortunately, she does not understand the ways of the business world, being more suited for life in a bunraku parlor."

--
Using Etiquette to try and smooth things over with the Johnson. 9d6 again. 5 hits

Neko bows to Mrs. Johnson, and casts an evil eye glare at Mist, to show that she should do the same. "We will begin work immediately, Mrs. Johnson."

Mist stands, and looks down at the Johnson for a moment. "Ok, lets get to work." She turns and a walks out of the room. Without bowing. She pauses and waits just outside of the door for the others to join her.