Moral Test

Ike was in deep concentration the entire time, mostly studying how effective negotiations went down. Still, he could tell what was happening. On the way out, he studied the club for one last time. This is a terrible place. Why would anyone willingly come here? He didn't ponder it, he just walked out. Receiving the message on his commlink, he thought for a minute. "I'm all for legwork, but I don't know about him seeing us. At least not this early. If he thinks someone's after him, he might get the wrong idea. Or the right one, from his point of view."

Walking out with the others, Neko shakes her head as she hears the hacker's message. "No, it would be best if we didn't see him until we were ready to strike. People get too cautious when they think someone's trying to kill them. A better bet would be to pay a visit to this investigator Mrs. Johnson hired, and see if we couldn't get a copy of the information he gave her. If we're lucky, his files will have all the data we'll need on Muller's activities to plan a proper ambush. If not, we can work with our contacts in order to come up with something. By the way, you can call me Nekomusume."

Reaper moves in past the bouncers with only the words "Mrs. Johnson" on his lips. He moves over through the thoroughfares of the club and sees that he is late. maybe he shouldn't have stopped that mugger a few blocks back, maybe he should have just left it all alone. But then again spray-painting the hapless mugger's tee-shirt with Fear the reaper gave him a great sense of satisfaction.

Now it was to the task at hand. he approached the table in his full battle-gear. his helmet blocked his identity only slightly but it was his strength and skill that could easily allow him to escape any trouble. He didn't care what others saw of him or w He moved over to the table and his eyes narrowed. Working with others didn't bother him as much as working with their motives and methods Greed, killing indiscriminately, and the sheer rush of things did not appeal to him. Playing with peoples lives for corporate greed left a sour taste whenever he thought about it.

He decided to stay incognito until the negotiations were finished. he tried to position himself outside the view of the Johnson while obviously showing he was part of the runners seated around by sitting next to them. Which in fact he was. He just didn't want the Johnson to see him so if things turned bad he could get the drop on her.

Shadowing 3 hits
Infiltration two hits
(ooc don't know if these were the right skills to use) Opposition has -4 to see me and -4 to hear me due to Ruthenium coating and Traceless walk.

When he heard what this suit wanted it was like his stomach suddenly tightened into knot the size of a dragon. He was immediately conflicted. Sure taking out a corporate sleaze was one thing...the only thing in fact. But he had not anticipated the amount of coldness or desperate nature of another, more sleazy, wage-slave.

A Wet-work operation; really? on his first major run?

When the girl pulled out the recorder he grinned inside his helmet.

Clever

As soon as the negotiations were done he followed the group out side and decided to introduce him self.

"I am Reaper, What madness have you gotten me into concerning work for someone of a desperate and untrustworthy nature? I know it is wet-work, but I was late to the meeting and wish to know what possessed all of you to take this run of, what I think, concerns dubious background, motives and drek pay."

Mist holds up a finger to Reaper and waits as the others clear the room. Once they are all out, she pauses, and looks around carefully, checking to make sure the Johnson didn't follow them right out of the room and the other customers aren't close enough to get a good earful. Satistifed, she turns sharply on her heels and leans in close to Neko, her face maybe an inch away from the catgirl's. "Two things, cat. First, yes, threats are part of the game. Don't betray me or else is expected and acceptable. But there are limits to all things and, sorry, but 'I've already hired a hit team to kill you' crosses those limits. Second, disagree with me, insult me, argue with me, fine. But compare me to a gaijin again and I'll feed you those damn ears one bite at a time. Clear?"

Pulling back from Neko, she turns and looks over the other, nodding politely and seeming back in control of herself. "Ok - you can all call me Mist. I'm a professional sneak, so I'll probably be doing any meat recon and getting us past any security that can't be hacked. Reaper, if you wanted input on if we took the job, you should have showed up to the damn meeting on time. If you want to walk, that's fine with me, means a larger share of the cred for the rest of us. And leave the unobtrusive sneaking to the professionals dear - you've got potential, but you ain't there yet. I, too, think this private eye should be our first stop. See what he knows, get whatever information he already hass on the target." She glances over at Heap. "Might save you a lot of time and effort."

Perception(visual): Perception 3 + Intuition 5 + Specalization 2 + cyber-eye enhancement 3 + attention co-processor 3 - ruthenium polymers 4 = 12 = 4 hits
Perception(hearing): Perception 3 + Intuition 5 + cyber-ear enhancement 3 + attention co-processor 3 - traceless walk 4 = 10 = 3 hits

"Mist has a point. Introductions, as well as a quick description, would be a geed start. No point in knowing what we're up against if we don't even know what we have. Call me Ike. I'm also a sneak, and not much else. I'm also not bad with a sniper, if that's how we decide to do this." Even though he had asked for introductions, Ike didn't wait for a response before diving into his idea. "I say we hit up the PI, see what he has to say. Then Mist or I shadow the target, figure out his daily routine. At the same time," he looked over at Heap, "you will be digging for information on him. Not sure about the rest of you, maybe talk to some people, see what they know, but be discreet." Ike looked away from the others. "That's very basic. Does anyone have any other ideas?"

Reaper looks at mist with a smile through his helmet and calmly says:


"You misunderstand I was not trying to hide from you or any other members of our little group I meant for all of you to see me. From your perception you must have realized that I was trying to hide my presence only from our employer. I'm in this run but I have some reservations about how we go about it which I will enlighten you upon later. As for me I am Reaper, It is true that I am not a professional sneak but that is not my true forte. I am more muscle. I can win a fist fight but I prefer to do it in a precise and smooth manner. Everything else is secondary.

Neko smiled, showing off those pointed teeth of hers, completely unphased by Mist's outburst. "If you don't want to be compared to gaijin, then don't act like one. If that upsets you, you are more than welcome to try and do something about it. Newsflash, sister. We're all new kids on the block. That means that yes, they can tell us they've lined someone up to kill us if we screw up, because we don't have a rep worth talking about yet. Respect is earned, and we don't have any yet. Understand?"

"Though I did note that you'd rather be called a bunraku girl than a gaijin. Something you want to tell us, hmm?"

Then she turns her attention to Reaper. "As she said, if you have concerns about the job, you should concern yourself with getting to the meet on time. So you don't get to have concerns about this run. Anyways, what's the problem? We just kill a corp wageslave, get our money, and move on to the next gig. Easy as pie."

"As for my capabilities, I would be what you might call a street samurai, though I am not unfamiliar with stealth, and can hold my own in negotiations. And, if we get busted up bad, I know a first rate street doc who can take care of the meat, and any ware you have."

Having had his idea of seeking out Muller in person shot down, The Heap once again zones halfway out of the conversation, finding the business commcode and placing a call to Casey Elton, P.I.

The Heap leaves a message for the P.I. "Mr. Elton, I am leaving this message to inquire as to the whereabouts of Mr. Dedier Muller. I believe that our mutual employer has instructed you to expect my call. Please call me back or forward the data directly to . . ." The Heap leaves the commcode of his 'public' commlink before logging off the call and returning to his search, still half-listening to the conversation going on around him.

((Data Search, 2nd minute, 7d6, 3 successes - 4 total))

Reaper looks at the Cat-woman samurai, his face beneath his mask shows a sign of confidence in his own argument:


"There are other options then just geeking someone, and for what 7000, 8000 nuyen? The Johnson could have easily blackmailed this associate of hers by showing the evidence provided by the detective and gotten his complicity in quietly disappearing, which is what I think we should do except also force him to hire a mage to wipe his mind and give us a slice of the soy. Geeking him should be a secondary threat.

Geeking him may seem simple, but I think there are too many loose ends involved. which are what I think we will become by the end of this. I understand It's to late to bring up this point now since I was late, but I am saying we should be cautious if we are going to be doing wet-work for a suspect cause."

With that he continued to follow the group wondering where they were going exactly and why.

Mist chuckles, a suprisingly low, gravely sound, very unfeminine. "For someone who calls themselves the 'Reaper' you're damn squemish. Leaving someone alive who knows or knew comprimising information about you IS a loose end, mindwipe or no. I think the bid on the job was low, but we are the new gals on the block, so that's understandable. Personally... I can paralyse someone for a short time, then it wears off and the few traces it leaves vanish quickly. I'm thinking I hit him, we pump him full of something or other while he can't move, and then we let him od. Nice, clear cause of death for the Star, not suicide, but self-inflicted all the same so no reason to think it might have been a hit. Anyone know what sort of stuff is particularly popular with the corporate crowd at the moment?"

Ike shook his head. "She's right, we have to kill him." He listened to Mist's idea intently, thinking for a moment on what to contribute. "I don't know anything in particular, but I know a guy who might. Though it is a bit early to be deciding on something. Still, Ideas are good."

Reaper let out an audible sigh, and thought:

Apparently wet-work is unavoidable. I hope I'm not making a big mistake on this one.

He then went sub-vocal to the whole group, as continuing to talk about such things on the street can be lethal.

"Reaper is just my code name I use to strike fear in my enemies. Its not meant to mean anything and I don't put much thought into it's effect. As for geeking random suits; I don't have much of a problem. Just understand: If we are dealing with some kind of power-trip wet-work then I believe things are going to get complicated; more complicated then we see it now. But I'll do my part until it's finished."

Anyway, where exactly are we going? Do we have some kind of safe house to plan all this?"

Neko listens to the others, and then shakes her head slowly. "Magic leaves traces that can be linked to the caster. We have to kill him. The method and location we should leave to be decided once we have the information the PI has. This work might be distasteful to some, but if we conduct ourselves like professionals, and get good results, then we get a rep, and we're able to get better work. I suggest we plant evidence that he had been approached by agents of another corp, Renraku, for instance, looking to develop him as a mole, and also plant evidence that he turned them down. His death would be linked back to Renraku, no matter what method of death we chose."

"As for a safehouse, I could call my fixer to arrange something. He's a reliable guy."

Meanwhile, seeing as no one objected to her making the arrangements for a safehouse, Neko purred into her commlink. "Ato-kun! Call me back when you get this! I need a safehouse for some business."

Neko smiled as she read the message her friend had sent her. She could always rely on him to come through for her. Quickly, she broadcast the address to the others over their PANs. "I got us a safehouse where we can set up shop during this run. Rendezvous there in half an hour, unless anyone has objections?"

Over her own comlink, she sent a simple thank you to Ato-kuni, a short trid file of her persona giving him a very big kiss.

With a grin, she looked to the others, to see if they were ready to head out.