Oops. I'll edit my IC post.

OK, post edited.

Stuff We Need To Ask About:
1) LT Bradshere & Case #5247
2) Twoman. We asked Ramirez about it at the initial meet and he didn't sound like he could do much or have much more information, by my reading.
3) ???

From Jack's perspective, he thinks a physical meet might be best considering the sensitivity of the questions. Grease has a tailor-made method for conducting clandestine meets: the taxi. Do a pick-up or two, then pick Ramirez up, have a folder in the backseat for him to flip through, ask a few questions, drop him off, pcik up another fare or two, call it a day. You can even run a reasonable surveillance detection route at the same time. Granted, putting Grease and Ramirez in a taxi together alone may not be a stellar idea, LOL.

That sounds like a pretty good plan.

We can always ask him if anything has changed at work, if he himself has new information that may help us, or if anything has changed regarding the cases we are working, stuff like that.

Otherwise, I don't recall anything else that we want to ask.

Ok;

I like the "moving meet" idea; if you make that suggestion IC I can post a request to meet with Ramirez tonight. In person sounds better to me.
-DrZ

Unless someone else has posted since my last IC, I'll just edit that ( so don't look for a new notification).

P.S. I just consolidated all of the information from the map into a Powerpoint Presentation and uploaded it to the DB.

OK, I edited my post. Does anyone have a Radio Signal Scanner? I guess Overkill could scan the taxi for hidden icons before Grease leaves to pick up Ramirez, but not sure how we make sure Ramirez isn't bugged without a Radio Signal Scanner or someone with a good matrix perception. Assuming we get that locked down, I think the biggest threat would be a drone with a laser microphone.

ETA: Looks like Overkill has a bug scanner and an area jammer.

We could have Overkill ride in the trail car and watch for surveillance from there.

5 people piled into a single Taxi? Gonna be like a clown car in there... I would offer to stay back but I need to do Overwatch for the meet so.

Perhaps just Grease and Overkill should go on the meet with our Johnson? Seems like all of us crammed in there asking him questions may make Ramirez uncomfortable, not to mention looking very suspicious.

If Grease doesn't want to use his BMW for a trail car, perhaps Jack and Amy can take my Falke and stay in the area in case we need backup (They don't actually need to trail us, just stay in the vicinity of our Taxi's route)

Honestly, I don't think we really need a trail car, I was just trying to not split the party again. If it is a choice between everyone squeezing into a taxi or only one person going, I would take the latter.

ETA: I assume Grease is going to use the burner commlink that Ramirez gave us? I think it is the only one we have at the moment.

I don't really see the big deal, just have Grease be at the meet, and all of us will be part of the conversation over commlink, from a nearby spot.

I think I need to be pretty close to use my bug scanner and jammers.

Is there any way for me to check if someone is monitoring the commcode Ramirez is having us message?

It's a full sized automobile!


Sorry; *I* have no issue with the team driving the BMW, but I feel like it's something Grease would balk at. I think what makes the most sense is to have Grease and Overkill in the front seat of the Taxi, picking up Ramirez, with Amy and Jack on a secure commlink (protected on overwatch by Overkill) phoning in.

This solves a number of issues:
1) Grease isn't alone in the car with Ramirez
2) Overkill's bug scanner and jammer are close enough to work
3) We have a backup team to follow us and check for tails if there's an issue
4) We can flee in separate directions if things get hairy.
5) Since I can tint the windows of the cab, having an extra person in the front seat probably would go unnoticed by casual passersby, but if we had 4 people already inside it'd probably be more obvious.

At this point, I'm inclined to just leave it be, and see how Lobo responds; it's entirely possible Ramirez won't meet on our terms and will insist on picking the location.

-DrZ

That makes total sense to me. Grease only met us two or three days ago. My idea was to have Grease in a trail vehicle in VR remote controlling his vehicle and the taxi in VR. Jack would be the "taxi driver" but wouldn't really do anything other than talk to Ramirez. I think Jack has a slightly better relationship with the Johnson at the moment. I kind of think that Amy and Overkill need to be as far from Ramirez as possible for the time being.


This is a very good point. We probably should table the discussion until we hear back from him.


Well, his commcode is programmed into the burner commlink he gave us, so you should be able to use that bit of information to spot the icon in the Matrix using Matrix Perception (depending on the Running Silently rules). Then you could just alternately make Matrix Perception checks on each commlink icon and check for any unexpected MARKs.

As long as Overkill gets into the Taxi at Nic's and doesn't get out; there shouldn't be any problem with him going along. If they already know we are here at the shop and are monitoring it, that means they know Jack's identity and probably Grease's too. In that case we are already humped, and having Amy and Overkill hole up will do us little good other than impeding our progress.

Thanks for the tip on checking out Ramirez's commcode; I will do that as soon as Lobo checks in again.

You are probably right on size, I just have too many memories of jamming people into smaller cars for long car rides.

Don't worry about the driving thing, I knew it was an in-character thing with nothing personal attached.

I think it's poor OPSEC, but I am happy to go along with whatever the group decides. Plus, Jack wouldn't really have all that much of an idea about the matter.

Which part? The secured link or the team not being together?

The part where we don't exactly know how burned you and Amy are but are still going to put our Johnson in close proximity.

It's probably not a massive risk, but considering Honeypot is only on the periphery of our investigation (she has connections to smugglers) but knows two elves are digging into murdered Lone Star officers, there's no telling how much someone closer to the conspiracy knows. There are a lot of video cameras at the places we've visited. The conspirators could be doing the exact same thing that we've been doing as far as hacking cameras.

While I would prefer a face to face meet, I think our safest bet is just to call him on the phone and have Overkill check for unexpected MARKs. Probably the safest method.

Also, if Overkill and I are both in the Taxi, that's still two elves...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

So for now should we just operate on the assumption that they are probably monitoring us already here at the shop?

I could do a quick scan of the area for any hackers who may be lurking about.

Couldn't hurt, I would think. I am not particularly worried at the moment, but if Overkill is concerned it may be a way to set Amy's mind at ease that her family is safe.

-DrZ

Back from the convention - lots to read - which is a great thing (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Will have some posts up tonight.

Yeah, my main concern is how much they know about you two. They may know Overkill's Matrix Icon, they may know Amy's signature (I don't think that is necessarily a possibility as I believe she erased her signature everywhere she went), etc. I'm mainly worried that Jack's contact has heard at least limited details on the personalities involved and knows that we're looking into Lone Star deaths. Probably more of the latter than the former.

Looking forward to the updates.

I agree that the threat is there, and that the possibility of leading whoever is after us to the Johnson is a serious concern. The question remains on how we proceed under that threat. We can't very well leave half the team shelved just because they are on to us investigating; but it should make us watch every step we take from here on out even more carefully.

@Lobo: Going to be making a Matrix perception check of the area to see if there any hackers lurking in the vicinity.

I also wanted to check out Ramirez's commcode; (the method suggested by Jack) and see if there any unexpected MARKs on it, that could mean it is being monitored.

Lobo- since this is your game/town, I'd like you to suggest a location that Grease would know, but I obviously wouldn't (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Here's what I'm looking for; once I have a place that meets these criteria, I can respond IC.

• UCAS Sector
• A place someone would grab a taxi, but not from a taxi stand (so maybe a corner downtown, but not at the airport)
• Someplace Ramirez would probably take a taxi from in his day to day life (maybe outside a restaurant)
• Someplace with wide boulevards and lots of room to maneuever; not a main thoroughfare jammed up with traffic.

As a reminder, Grease has Denver Area Knowledge 2, as well as the "Home Ground" quality.

I don't think y'all need to be shelved, but I don't think it is a good idea to have either one of you anywhere close to the Johnson until we know more about the threat, particularly given the Johnson is very concerned about his safety.

I'll wait for Lobo's response to DrZ's question before responding IC.

@Overkill,

A matrix perception test viewing any icons that seem suspicious in the area: (By the way, both of these tests assume you slip into VR to gain the +2 VR bonus - just for IC purposes.

10d6.hits(5)=5

You are fairly certain that no one is watching you.

As for finding his commlink's icon:

8d6.hits(5)=5 WOW - Invisible Castle seems to love you today - quick, hack something important (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

You are able to find his commlink icon, and the extra hits allow you to determine that there are no marks on the icon.

@Grease,

I would say Commerce City is the place to go - not the Hub, so you don't have to get your taxi through the border security, and it is a mostly business district. Any of the main roads will do - East 58th, 60th, 62nd, 64th, or even all the way up at East 72nd. Lots of places to pick up a taxi on any of those roads, (pick a cross street, any cross street - if it doesn't matter to you, we can assume East 60th and Newport). The Quebec Parkway is fairly wide, and given that the meet is for almost 9:00 PM, should not have too much traffic on it. You could drop him off at Mccormicks.

Any other info you need?