IC - Oracle Investigations, Hard boiled Gum-shoes in the Sprawl Options

[Nikoli]

It's Tuesday, 1 in the afternoon.
The landlord was paid for the next month.
It's raining, again.

The telecom rings.

[Lilt]

Tom sits with his feet up on his desk, his fedora angled-down, shielding his eyes from the harsh lights in the office.

As the telecom rings Tom wakes with a start, trying to find his bearings, then in a practiced motion he swings his legs round under the table. Straightening himself up, putting the hat back on, and clearing his throat, he answers the telecom:

"Oracle investigations. Tom speaking, how can I help you?"

[Nikoli]

"Y-y-yes. My name is Jonus Shultz. I would like to set up an appointment at your office for 3 this afternoon."

[Darkest Angel]

Nat is sat at her desk engrossed in this weeks copy of Nature: Thaumaturgic Developments. She glances up with vague interest as Tom answers the phone, watching and listening to the one side of conversation.

"Work?" She enquires once Tom hangs up.

[Nikoli]

The office telecom, picking up on keywords appointment , 3 and afternoon has pulled up your calendar as you speak with Mr. Shultz. Your schedule is open through mid-march.

Natalya
As the word escapes your mouth, you are overtaken with flashes of light. A moment and your understanding clears, you see children being handed to a cloaked figure, his marble skin reaches forward, you see pewter claws with cuticles the color of blood reach out and accept the child. It's mewling and crying are eerily silenced as you hear something being torn free. A moment passes and the child crawls fromt he figure, changed yet not.

As you watch, you feel the eyes of the figure meet yours and pain wracks your body, you are torn free from the vision. A feeling of warmth engulfs your heart, the Maiden passing the feeling of safety back to you. With that the vision fades and the world returns.

[Panzergeist]

Greg Vimes was at his desk, zoned out from the real world, tuned into the matrix. But he wasn't unaware of the telecom call. On the contrary, he had started monitoring it before Tom even answered. He made a note to himself to get off the matrix at 2:45.

[toturi]

Gil looks over to Tom and raises an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Name sounds familiar. Guy seems nervous. 3 in the afternoon... Sneaking out of the office during a break?"

[Darkest Angel]

Natalya closes her eyes and shakes her head to clear her thoughts... "What was...?" she mumbles half the sentence to herself; looking down at her desk and around the room. She takes a deep breath and opens her senses to the astral planes looking for a sign of anything different.

[Nikoli]

Natalya
The room seems normal. The phone appointment seems very important to the Maiden for some reason.

[Darkest Angel]

"Perhaps, but I feel it may be important. I think I know that name from somewhere too... If we all recognise it, it shouldn't be too tough to find on the matrix - and that's his job." She nods in the direction of Greg. "Wake him up."

[Lilt]

Tom, having finished the niceities of the comm call and arranged the meeting, sits and contemplates quietly to himself.

"The name is familiar, I think he may be attached to an official in the Mayor's office or something", he mentions as part of his contemplation. Snapped back to reality, he nods at Gil and Natalya "Very possibly, he could be making the meeting on-behalf of his boss, but then why would he be so nervous? If we can poke greg to do a Matrix scan for it that'd be nice, but we don't want to be sitting there with his life history on our desk. He's nervous enough already, and we're not going to solve the crime before he gets here... Wake me just before 3 will you?"

He sets an alarm on the Telecom for 2:45, and puts his feet back up on the desk with the fedora over his eyes.

[Panzergeist]

Briefly jacking out from the matrix, Greg Vimes says to all present "I heard that call. The name sounds familiar to me too, but I don't remember where from. I didn't trace the call for fear that the trace would be discovered and the client would get spooked. I'll do a search online for that name."

Jacking back into the matrix, Greg Vimes goes about researching the name of Jonas Schultz, looking in SeaSource, the city hall host, and UCAS online search engine. No need to do any code-cracking yet; being a legal citizen, Greg Vimes pefers not to break the law unless he has to, and rarely hacks into anything from his home or office. That's what coffin hotels are for.

[Digital Heroin]

My life, is a short dive into deep shit...

The thought rolls through Jack's head as he tries for the second time to start his old Ford. Ford, hah, the name used to mean something, now it's just that, a name. Well, at least the car didn't blow up when he tried the ignition. Then again he'd only been in the Stuffer Shack two minutes, not quite enough time to set a detonator to the ignition.

Of course it could always be a remote.

Jack shakes off the thought, and still balancing the large cup in one hand, takes the keys from the ignition. Hell, it's only three blocks to the office, he'll come back for the car later. Not like anyone's going to steal the rusting clunker. Then again, he'd get insurance if someone did. No way the boys in the 'Star would get off their asses long enough to look for a stolen sedan. Especially not his sedan.

He closes the door behind himself without even bothering to lock it, adjusts his tie, and taking a sip of the coffee, Jack heads off in the direction of the office.

- - - - -

That's the beauty of working mostly nights. Jack doesn't show up to the office until around noon, often later. Him and a bottle of his namesake had spent the night together, so he was still a little hazy. The walk had done him good though. He pushes open the interior office door, heading towards his desk. For the moment he doesn't say anything to the others. He's got a ritual fight with his virtual inbox to go through first.

[toturi]

Before Jack even gets close to the office door, Gil can smell the coffee and says,"Well, Mr Night guy finally gets in."

[Panzergeist]

"Your memory serves you correctly," Greg remarks as he jacks out of the matrix at 2:40 and 17 seconds. "Jonus Schultz, personal assmonkey to deputy mayor Derrick Mandelson, and a third cousin of our dear departed governor. Lives in the Anne Hill neighborhood downtown. Born 2020, graduated top honors from the University of Washington majoring in political science and minoring in business. A Theta Kappa Epsilon pledge, debate team member, rowing team member, and president of the U-Dub chapter of the Young Republicans, and the current president of that organization's alumni association. I dislike him already."

[Digital Heroin]

Jack let Gil's comment roll off his mind, filing it away, but treating it like so much street noise. Background music to his life, the director's commentary trid track. He boots up his terminal, and takes a long moment to find the mail icon. He could swear someone moves the damn thing every morning.

Probably Greg, some kind of sadist tech humor....

`Political types with that kind of breeding bring money. Like him or not, we need the green.`

He doesn't look up, he just takes a long draw from his coffee, and looks over the screen.

[Lilt]

At the entrance of Jack, Tom stirrs hurredly. Realising he isn't a client, Tom gives Jack a nod and says "Meteting at 3 with the guy". Tom checks his watch, sighs when he sees that it's almost 3, and swings his feet back round onto the floor. Digging-out some realistic-looking paperwork, he slaps it in a file and prepares to look busy sometime in the near future, but not yet.

[toturi]

At 1430hrs, Gil walks out of the office, saying,"I'm going to establish counter-surveillance. Let's see if our client is being watched."

[Darkest Angel]

"That is very interesting, if mostly frivelous. Looks like we either have yet another cheating spouse on our hands, or something very high up and very sinister."

Nat ponders momentarily.

"I'm going to go for some lunch."

As she stands up, she casts 'Alleviate allergy' at force 2 into the spell's sustaining focus to alleviate the effects of sunlight outside.

She drives round to Steve's talismongers.

"Hey Steve, what've you got on demons, dragons, and child sacrifice?"

[Nikoli]

Setting aside the medicine wheel he was working on, Steve lokos at you over his blue tinted shades.
"Woah, that's some ugly stuff hon. Something on your mind?"

Looking past you he throws a piece of useless bone left at a young teenager who was reaching for a ceremonial tomohawk, "I told you kid, none of that till you finish school. Now get lost!"

[Darkest Angel]

Nat smirks at the kid as he cowers out of the shop.

"Maybe, just something I have a feeling I may be needing more information on. Frag knows why, but the spirits do move in some strange ways."

[Nikoli]

"You got that right. Last night I'm verifing the quality of some materials I just got in for spirit quests when all of a sudden the trip takes a turn for the worst."

[Darkest Angel]

"Verifying the quality eh?" Nat winks "Was a good job you found the problem and not some burly fire aligned Troll."

[Nikoli]

"That's just it, I had just finished preparing it when the vision came. I didn't have the heart to finish testing after that."

[Darkest Angel]

"May I ask what this vision was? Must have been pretty intense to put you off your trials..."