Land of Nine Dragons, Enter the Tiger, Mystery of the East Options

[DireRadiant]

02:15:33 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

The view was spectacular, outside the cloudy haze from the earlier celebrations still lingered in the air, lending a slight warming tone to the scintillating myriad of lights across the harbor. The interior of the room was brightly lit by the antique glass glass chandelier, though that was hardly needed to see what was in the room. Dark mahogany hand crafted cabinets and stuffed hand crafted chairs and a sofa provided plenty of seating. The glistening back lit porcelain vases emphasized the luxurious tone of the room, creamy white walls, and elegant gold embroidered rugs providing elegant backdrop to the scene.

It had been a smooth operation, information provided by Johnny Wang had been confirmed with their own legwork. Planning had been straightforward, there'd been only one time they'd gone with a secondary option, and that had turned out well. All the pieces had worked, everyone had done their part, even if what and why they were doing it was almost impossible to figure out, but that was the nature of a lot of business here. The results had been spectacular. The eighth barge in the fleet of fireworks platforms had fired off it's payload exactly on it's new schedule. To the millions watching there'd not been too much difference, and not much to the team either, but for what they were being paid, the team had been very happy.

All smooth till this. The payoff.

No one was looking at the awe inspiring view outside.

In a pool of still glistening wet blood slowly soaking into the thick gold and silver hand embroidered oriental rug in the middle of the floor lay Johnny Wang.

The last member of the team entered, and closed the door behind, and they all stood quietly looking at each other.

[BlackHat]

02:15:39 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

As the team entered and noticed the body, Blaze almost immediatly ignored it and moved against one wall - looking in the direction of the rest of the suite. From their vantage-point at the doorway, the team couldn't see much of the adjacent rooms - and Blaze thought the murderers might still be around. Of course, he wasn't about to move forward until he saw that the rest of the team was going to help him search - if they just decided to bail on this obviously bungled Run, he wasn't about to stick around. He was pissed that it was looking like his payment died here with the Johnson - but he wasn't that attached to the guy, and had no intention of dying here too.

[De Badd Ass]

02:16 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"Mother! Oh God, mother! Blood! Blood!"

Fooey is dressed to party, but isn't feeling very festive anymore. The dwarf, looking rather pale, opens the room door, steps out into the hallway, and takes several deep breaths. He looks up and down the hallway before stepping back inside.

Fooey mutters, "I don't know about the rest of you. I'm getting paid before the police start seizing evidence". He looks around for the payoff before spotting the nine gift boxes on the table. He takes the one with his name on it, and tucks it away.

"Now what", he asks?

Should we drink a farewell toast to Johnny?

[toturi]

02:16 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Cloud winces at the sheer disrespect and loss of face that Fooey is displaying, he speaks to Fooey in a polite tone,"My friend, I suggest you put that back. The hotel has its own security. I'm sure we can work something out with the hotel concerning our gifts. Afterall, we must pay our respects our departed patron. Right now, we are a group of people coming for a Xin Nian yan hui (New Year's dinner). Take the gold, and that'd be a robbery gone bad."

Cloud scans the room intently, taking note of the feeds from his sensors that are being displayed on his image link. "Is there someone with some first aid skills? Can we do anything for him? Perhaps he can still be saved."

Cloud is not too concerned about the botched payoff. Afterall, if they survive with their reps intact, there'd be other jobs. But if their reps are ruined, they can kiss any chances of working in this town again, especially if they were wanted for the murder of their Johnson.

[Konsaki]

02:15:33 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Neko Mahou – Support Shaman

Hikaru was feeling good about herself and how well she did on her first big shadowrun. Things might not have gone perfectly, but no one got hurt and they successfully changed the timing on the fireworks display, for what reason was still unknown. It mattered not though to the young shaman, because she was in it for the thrill and adventure. The payout was just a sweet bonus on what was starting to be a good night.
As she walked amidst her fellow runners, her teammates, into the hotel suite to final out the job with the payout, the pink haired girl was thinking about all the dancing she would be doing through the night. ‘I think one of the clubs down the street was playing some something with a good beat to it. Maybe there will be some cute guys there too.’, she thought to herself as she smiled, her mind envisioning a huge dance floor with strobes, laser lights and the jumping throngs of people.
The girl was so immersed in her thoughts that she didn’t even realize that the people in front of her had halted soon after entering the room, causing her to run into the person directly ahead of her. Quickly regaining her balance from the impact, she furrowed her brow as her tail twitched in agitation. Looking over the shoulder of the person she ran into, Hikaru started to ask, “What’s go… Oh my god…”, her question quickly cut off after she saw the scene ahead of her. Eyes wide, the changeling brought up her right hand to her mouth, the sight leaving her breathless.

On a table farther inside the hotel suite was a pile of nine boxes covered in red and gold wrapping. Beside them stood nine glasses, which were assumed to be used with the unopened bottle of brandy beside them. The backdrop to this was a skyline view of the grand fireworks display outside the huge bay windows.
What caused her pause though, in the middle of the room, was the face down body of Johnny Wang, the man who had hired her and the rest of the team to perform the job. As she looked it over with her purple eyes, she could see that it was still warm but it was slowly cooling as the seconds passed. In her glasses’ AR display, she could see a giant red floating symbol for ‘Summon Medical Help’ or that’s what she figured it said due to it being in Chinese. Checking quickly for an aura, Hikaru knew almost immediately that they weren’t looking at a person needing help, but the cooling corpse of a, from what she knew, courteous and knowledgeable man.
Quickly moving to one of the walls, she put her other hand on it for support as she bent over. Her stomach lurched and she fought with it to keep her past meal from showing itself to the world again. It took her a few moments to recompose herself, but she couldn’t look at the body without feeling something inside her lurch a little.

Behind her, she sees hears the door to the suite open an extra time. As she looks over, she sees the short Chinese dwarf, Fooey, moving out it while starring at the body wide eyed. Seeing him quickly leave the suite to stand in the hallway, she closes her eyes and shakes her head. ‘I cant blame him.’, she tells herself as she hears the door open and close again. The scene before her gets more interesting as Cloud, their observer and over watch, scolding the dwarf for his outburst after re-entering and also for quickly taking one of the wrapped packages.
"Is there someone with some first aid skills? Can we do anything for him? Perhaps he can still be saved.", she heard the young man say to try and get control of the situation. Swallowing another lurch as her gaze inadvertently went to the body of Wang after hearing him ask the question, she quietly replied, “I don’t think we can do anything… He doesn’t have an aura and the… body… is only warm, not like the rest of us.”
Wiping her eyes as she thought about him being dead, though she hadn’t known him for very long at all, she continued on, “How can you be so calm, Cloud? He’s dead, here right in front of us. My God, he’s dead!” After her last outburst, she collapses to her knees, wiping furiously at her eyes as the tears wont stop and sniffling every once in a while.

[toturi]

02:17 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"Please stay calm. I've seen flatliners get resusitated before, but if he is really beyond help, perhaps we can help find who killed him. Getting excited does not help."

He turns to the other members of the team,"It seems that our esteemed employer has met with an "accident". Even if he is beyond our help, perhaps we may salvage the situation by alerting the proper people. We should alert the hotel staff, no? Does anyone else have a better idea?"

[BlackHat]

02:17 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Burn the place to the ground, to cover our tracks, and never look back... thought Blaze but he didn't vocalize his suggestion. He had beleived that some of the group was more closely tied to Wang than he was, and their reactions seemed to confirm it.

"Are we sure this place is clear?" he asked, gesturing deeper into the hotel suite. "Someone should call an ambulance at least - I suggest that those of us with anything to hide get the hell out of here." He wasn't sure how he felt about the loot on the table. On one hand, he wanted to get paid for his work - that was why he came all the way out here. On the other, good points have been made - taking it is nothing short of theft, even if it was intended for them in the first place. They would definatly be on the run afterwards.

"... can anyone tell what killed him?" Blaze used the word "kill" purposefully. Expending time and effort trying to save a man that had been shot someplace vital would probably just get everyone killed or arrested. From the amount of blood on the floor, Blaze wasn't going to get hopeful that he would pull through.

Still, if he did, he might be able to tell Knight Errant that the team had nothing to do with it.

[amra28]

02:16 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Wu Xian enters the room in a very good mood. Everything went smooth as silk on the run and he managed to get through it without letting his inexperience show.

His mood though quickly changes as he takes a quick look at their employer lying on the floor.

"Oh frag", the Asian male says in a barely audible whisper as his right hand reaches unconciously into the left side of his coat. He pulls his empty hand out of his jacket after giving the room a quick scan and not noticing anything out of the ordinary.

He turns towards Fooey as the dwarf moves to pick up one of the boxes. Wu Xian is about to follow the dwarf's lead but is stopped by Cloud's comments.

Hearing one of the others confirm what Wu Xian already believed, that Johnny Wang was dead, he looks at the faces around him and quietly says, "Maybe we should look around the suite, we might not be alone?"

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

02:15:30 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

The old man pated Wu Xian´s back, as they walked into the Delux Harbor View Suite. "He would have been prowd of you. Knowing when to fight -and when not to- is as important as knowing how to do so!" The aged guy mumbled, refering to the one tight moment during the last run, where the wrong move could have escalated the scene into a blood-bath, before the teams talkers could turn the situation.
He was about to ramble on about old times, as they entered the living room and instantly knew, that something was horribly amiss and it didn´t take him long to see what it was.

He took a moment to take in the scene in detail and request an AR-analysis from his com, while an agitated Fooey paced past him to the hallway and back in. When the dwarven hacker moved on to grab a package, the old man was about to object and start issuing command, to bring some order into the chaotic situation. Damn commie, so much for noble ideals. He keeps his tongue in check hwever, as Cloud speaks up for cooler heads to prevail.

"I would heed Cloud´s advice, he is as wise as he is farsighted!" Doing his name justice.

At the same time he took a step towards young Neko, genuinly pating her shoulder, the touch of the gnarled and callous looking hand feeling much gentler then it should have any right to be, even silk gloved as it was. "It´s allright!" Nobody blames a little girl for crying.

When Wu Xian speaks up and looks around, the ancient martial artist meets his eyes with a bitter looking face and nods. Then, still rubbing the cat-girl´s shoulder, he looks at Blaze and tilts his head, gesturing towards the foyer and bedroom.
It looks like Cloud will make sure that everything that´s needed is done for little Jhonny -he know´s I´ve got a kit and patch if it´s needed- and Mr. Root will make sure, nobody´s destroying any evidence here ... or place the false kind..

[De Badd Ass]

02:17 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"If you don't want your money, can I have it?"

"Let me see if I got this straight. You commit crimes for money, but you won't take the money you're due. You commited a crime less than three hours ago, and now you want to report one. Before you all break down and start confessing to everything you've ever done, I'm out of here."

Fooey heads down the hall toward the stairs.

[Vegas]

02:15:33 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
PAN – Passive

Willow had taken the trouble earlier to get “dressed up” for the evening. Her long black hair was pulled back in a loose bun, held in place with black lacquer hair sticks with gold tigers, she wore tight black pants with knee-high black heeled boots and a shortened cheongsam top in the appropriate bold colours and tiger embroidery to ring in the new year. She had the full intent of hitting the club scene after getting paid, besides what better to do with hard-earned cash than spend it? All that had changed as she stepped inside the hotel room and found Johnny lying face down in a pool of blood instead of standing there welcoming them with a smile on his full face and his eyes dancing behind his gold-rimmed glasses.

The fact that he was likely dead, a quick shift over to thermographic and back confirmed it had happened quite recently, did not effect Willow like it seemed to others. She had seen plenty of dead bodies before, the only thing that gnawed at her uncomfortably was that it was her employer laying on the floor and the fact that the murder had taken place just prior to their arrival to the suite. Her dark eyes moved over the immediate surfaces in the room, her gaze pausing on the windows and the view of the harbor. She wasn’t admiring the scenery, she was more concerned with who might be admiring them. Carefully she walked over to the window shade controls, her heels leaving no trace of her path as she crossed the plush carpets. Pulling her leather jacket down to cover her hand she was about to nudge the controls with a knuckle to draw the shades and provide them privacy when she stopped and looked back at the team. A request was being sent to summon medical help which meant the time before they had company might be shorter than expected.

“A request is out for medical help. Perhaps we should make our investigation quick and private?” She spoke in soft, Chinese-accented English as she indicated the window shade and her intent to activate it.

She watched Chan pocket an elegantly wrapped box and the disappointment was apparent on her face. Yes they had come to get paid, but there was always the concern over maintaining guanxi here in Hong Kong. Right now they’d have to shift gears and start thinking about covering their tracks and or doing damage control with at least the Peninsula’s staff and security.

The party would have to wait.

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

02:16:55 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

He casts a red and blue side-glance at the other woman in the team, as she watches Fooey with obvious dissappointment, that mirrors his own feelings about the fellow local.

At least one of the little girls is not a total newcommer cry-baby.

While turneng towards the door, he quickly replys to Willow in a hollow sounding british english: "Yes, we should hurry to collect all available information and then make a choice!" Before he is even finished, he nods to Blaze and starts moving into the Foyer and on into the bedroom.

After a few seconds they are through - relatively sure that there are no enemies present anymore. Then he takes a few more seconds, to quickly scan the suite for hints.

[Konsaki]

02:17:12 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Neko Mahou - Support Shaman
PAN - Passive

The small Japanese girl jumped a bit as she felt something touch her shoulder, but when she looked up, she saw a kind face coming from the old man. "It's alright!", she heard him tell her as he patted her shoulder a few times. Hikaru was surprised at how soft and gentle his hand was, considering what she saw of them during the run.
Though he didn't say anything after that, he continued to gently comfort her just by softly holding onto her shoulder. The moral support ment the world to her at that moment, as she continued to wipe her eyes.
"Ojiisan... Gomennasai! Gomennasai!", she whispered in a light voice as she tried to stop the flow of tears. "I don't know why I can't stop... Why?", she continued, though the comforting hand was starting to work, the young Neko starting to regain some sense of composure. "Why would someone do that to Mr. Wang? All we did was mess with some fireworks...", she asked him as if he somehow knew the answer. As she looked up at him, she wiped away the few remaining tears, though her eyes were still ones of sorrow.

Breaking her gaze with the old fist fighter, Hikaru slowly grabbed ahold of his hand, and held onto it as she slowly stood up. Once she was fully on her own two feet, she let go and slowly leaned against the wall while looking around at the others, carefully avoiding the sight that caused her outburst in the first place.
"Shitsureishimashita... Sorry...", she repeated as she quickly wiped her eyes one last time as she sees him turn and walk away.

[Mister Juan]

02:15:50 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Gabe - TechWiz
PAN - Passive

This was only going to be Gabriel's second New Year spent in Hong Kong. Two years already… Time flies by, especially when you’re young and with little care in the world. Both hands buried in his pockets, Gabe had been bobbing his head, gently whistling to a tune only he could hear, stopping now and then to allow a playful smile to dance on his face. Finding a “proper” way to dress up for the occasion had been something of a challenge. Most of the attires Gabe wore were either in line with the current teen trend, or just very very loud. Usually, it was something of a mix of both. Black dress pants, freshly pressed at the street corner of his flat, a long sleeve electric-blue shirt worn under a buttoned up short sleeve black dress shirt an a pair of matching blue shoes. Shoes and undershirt were on, of course, to match with his trademark electric blue hair, which didn’t seem any more in order than it usually was. Gabe was, to put it simply, dressed in a casually eccentric way.

It actually took the young field hacker a few seconds to realize what everyone was looking at. His eyes were already too busy feasting on both the payment resting on a table, and the magnificent view. Grinning for ear to ear, his eyes went down to discover what everyone had already spotted.

Immediately, his trademark smile vanished… and his already fair skin turned pale. His mouth became dry, and he felt as if he was swallowing rocks. What little was in his stomach crept up his throat, but stopped there.

He was dead.

Gabe turned his face to the floor, staring at a spot far enough from the body he wouldn’t have to acknowledge it… but still close enough not too look too wimpy. All his survival instincts were telling him the usual: to just bail out. To take the money and go… but his feet felt like they were stuck in concrete. No matter what, he just couldn’t move. At least, not yet.

I’d give anything for a Sunshine fix right about now…

All around him, the rest of the team was already kicking into gear. Some wanted, like him, to just bail out. Others were insisting on staying. No options were quite good, but none were either bad. If Knight Errant showed up, Gabe knew he had enough illegal ware just IN him to get him busted. That and the fact he was staying in Hong Kong illegally. But the young ex-pat had spent enough time in the ‘plexe to know that things probably wouldn’t come that far. Hong Kong as a whole had a very “foreign” concept concerning maintaining appearances and the likes. Rule of thumb was, the hotel would probably deal with the whole matter internally first, and only contact KE later in the night. Odds were, the team could deal with the hotel’s staff on their own terms.

As others spoke of the following course of action, Gabriel’s eyes started to slowly creep back up to Johnny’s stiff body, trying to concentrate more on the virtual overlay of the room, rather than the sight of blood and smell of death.

After a few seconds, Gabe tried to speak up. The first few words didn’t quite come out of his mouth, as he discovered his mouth was still terribly dried up from the sight of Johnny’s dead body.

“There ain’t a soul coming to the guy’s rescue. Room’s tight on signals… ain’t a thing broadcasting out of this place.”

The young hacker’s eyes became slightly unfocused on the scene. It had been rather obvious to everyone during the job that Gabriel was sporting a rather impressive internal commlink ware. The teenager didn’t even bother to hide the fact by using some dummy decoy commlink. A split second later, his attention was back to the matter at hand.

“Room’s nodes are set to total privacy…” he made a vague hand waving toward Johnny, trying to avoid looking at the body “which means every pulse jammed up and scrammed.”

He took the hands out of his pockets to run one through his blue hair.

“Ain’t no one showin’ up unless we call ‘em”

Gabe was about to continue when a slight frown came up on his face. He looked to his left, and lower right, to things probably only he could see.

“This placed buzzed… The nodes are real fraggin’ uncooperative… The place’s got full sensors running, but they ain’t recording a thing… Either Johnny boy had them off for privacy, or the mates who offed him got em. I wouldn’t be worryin’ too much about wireless signals going out of this place, or us being tracked by the same means…”

Man I need a chip about now…

Gabe’s left hand started to twitch, and the young hacker quickly flexed it opened and closed a few time to shoo away the nervous tick. His green eyes went to Hikaru, as he bit his lower lip. He probably felt as bad as the girl… but was just too proud to let it show through.

I feel for you girl… I really do…

“I’m fine with taking the money and running the frag away…” he said, looking toward Cloud “but I’m spot on with you it’s probably not the best course of action.”

Once again, he swallowed, hard.

“Let’s be ice cool, and keep it collected like we’d aught to be keeping it… but let’s not hang around chillin’ for too long…. Th’place givin me the creeps and gooses.”

[Mister Juan]

02:17:12 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Gabe - TechWiz
PAN - Hidden

With a wary eye, Garbiel watched as he fellow Matrix cowboy took his price and made himself scarce. Doubt was already creeping back in. Everything in him was telling him to run the frag away. Now.

>>Commlink swtiched to hidden mode.
>>Stealth programming: active

Closign his eyes, he took a few deep breaths in and out to steel himself. Under his closed eyelids, he could still watch the virtual world swirl around him.

//Chat Box: Open
Gabriel: Let's be quick n' fast about this. Our guy's wired in the head. I'll crack it open as fast as I can... Maybe we can blackbox something out of him.

[TheRedRightHand]

02:17 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Mike Root
PAN - Off

Mike is quick to respond when someone asks about first aid. First he turns on his eye recorders, making sure to quickly record the body and the area around it, for closer inspection later. He cautiously moves up to Wang's side, careful of where he steps, lest he disturb any potential evidence around the body.

He does a quick check of Wang's vital signs and gives a slight shake of his head to the others watching him, "It doesn't look good, but he's still warm. Someone had better call an ambulance. Fast."

After that he takes a better look at Wang and the area around the body. His keen, police trained eyes, looking for any clues. He even goes so far as to pat down Wang and lift the body slightly, just enough to see if Wang has any other injuries on the front of his body, or if anything is lying underneath him.

After that he will step away from the body and look at the others, "Has anyone made that damn call yet?"

[toturi]

02:18 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"Willow, if you would be so kind, please go down and inform the concierge that we have an emergency here and he needs to inform security and their in-house doctor. Keep making emergency calls to Mr Wang's medical care provider until you get through. See if you can find Fooey, but do not leave the hotel."

"Gabe, do what you got to do fast. Mike, do what you can for Johnny. Rest of us will search the room and practice our looks of concern and consternation." Looking at Hikaru, "Maybe not all of us needs to practice."

[Vegas]

02:18:04 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Willow - Thief
PAN – Passive

Willow half-nodded half-bowed in Cloud’s direction agreeing silently to do as suggested. Before she took to the door she looked at every remaining member of the team.

“Keep the story straight. We came for a New Year’s celebration with a friend or an acquaintance. No lies if they can be avoided and don’t stab one another in the back.”

She was straight and to the point, very little emotion in her soft voice. She spared Hikaru one last look of consolation before screwing on her best face full of terror and concern as she dashed from the room and took off down the hall in search of Chan and then hotel security.

[amra28]

02:18:55 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Wu Xian waits for the old man to begin moving. When he does the young man moves in behind him to provide cover for the search. As he brings up the rear, Wu Xian carefully pulls out his predator and quickly attaches a silencer to the muzzle.

Regardless of how he feels about guns, it makes me feel better, he thinks as he gives the old man's back a half smile and then gets back to the business of covering him.

[TheRedRightHand]

02:18:20 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Mike shakes his head at Cloud, "There's nothing I can do for him. He needs a doctor or a surgon or something..."

He gets up and paces the room, thinking. After a moment he catches his breath and settles down. "Ok, we've got maybe 5 minutes before hotel security shows up. Anyone with something to hide better split, we can meet up again later. The rest of us should fan out and look for anything that either, A) might incriminate us with tonights activities and B) give us some idea of what happened here."

He then begins circling the room, looking for any sign of the weapon, spots of blood, or signs of a struggle.

When he gets to the bedroom he carefully looks over the bed and after a moment he spots the long strand of hair. He carefully picks it up and examins it under the light. He then holds the hair to his nose and takes a sniff of it. After that he goes to the pillows on the bed and examins them more closely, even going so far as to smell them.

Getting up from the bed he slides the length of hair carefully into his pocket, then continues his search.

[BlackHat]

02:18:20 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Blaze's instincts say to split, but he decides to stick around and help out. When hotel security shows up - if things go badly, the group just might end up having to gun its way out of here... and he might finally see some action.

As the others begin to search the place, Blaze positions himself around a corner from the doorway, keeping his attention in that direction for any new arrivals.

[DireRadiant]

02:18:20 Tuesday 11 February 2070, Yokogawa Ambulance Services, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, 30 Gascoigne Road, KLN

Specialist services third grade Han Jian had fallen fifty feet off of the roof before he woke from his sleep. Fortunately the two person high speed gyrocopter had an autopilot smart enough to avoid the ground. He left the software pilot running things as he piped in a full analysis of the incoming call. The fact the pilot had started without checking with him already told him it wasn't a standard pickup, and the location and initial fuel burn data reinforced the impression he received simply from being pressed into his harness from the acceleration.

The gyrocopter cleared the parking structure by a good 4 centimeters as high octane afterburners kicked in and boosted it's forward acceleration. Han Jian was already linking up all the communications grids he could and doing all the communications and jurisdictions checks as he blasted south. The Celestial Long Life Contract meant he could have a little fun with a fly by straight down Nathan road on his way to the pickup.

[Mister Juan]

02:18:22 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

The masterfully crafted piece of technology wired straight into Gabe’s brain made his work fast, reliable and discreet. He would smirk away when people would fumble around with clunky AR gloves, clumsy physical interfaces and actual physical human-machine support. Direct Neural Interface was how the future was; and Gabriel was already there and loving every single second of it.

Electronic pulses were beamed straight over to his synthetic eyes, overlaying a complex grid of graphics, texts and virtual sensations only he could understand fully. With a mere twist of his own will, programs loaded themselves here and there, windows opening and closing as he began to work his way into Johnny’s commlink.

Node detected.
….. Establishing Direct Link….
<< Running Diagnostic >>

Well well. Looks like Johnny boy wasn’t just a plain suit after all… This might take a little more work than I thought…

Passcode: ******
ACESS DENIED
Passcode: ******
ACESS DENIED
Passcode: ******
ACESS DENIED

With a heavy sigh, the young hacker decided that a sweet and gentle approach wouldn’t quite cut it tonight. Time was of the essence, and his patience was already running out. He’d have to brute force his way in.

Has he cracked his way in using all the dirty tricks and OS holes he knew, Gabe broke the firewall in a few seconds, shattering it in the most unsubtle of ways… which the system didn’t quite like. Although Johnny was probably already dead, or soon to be, his commlink was still kicking strong to protect it’s owner’s precious data. Never the less, Gabe took on the node, grabbing it by the reins and pulling hard to make it obey. A few ones and zeros later, he was king of the hill. Booting back up the commlink system, he ran a quick activity report. All around him, windows filled with scrolling text hovered in place, the real meat world piercing thru their semi-opaque form.

Biting his lower lip to hold back a curse, Gabe felt a cold drop of sweat run down his spine as he read the activity log. His head on attack on the system had caused automatic defenses to spring up into actions before he had gain control of the node. Data had been lost. Intentionally. From what he could see, some specialized Agent had corrupted beyond salvage a few precise file. Nevertheless, unless he told his fellow teammates, no one would ever notice the loss of data.

Transferring everything still left to his own hardwired memory, Gabe then started to delete the activity log. It would probably been obvious to anyone looking that someone had cleaned the place up… but they’d never be able to tell who, when, what and how.

Gabe’s focus switched back to the meat world.

“I’m done with my own motions. I lifted every single bytes there was… Lots of data, and lots of it is crypted lock n’ tight as it should be.”

Turning away from the body, Gabriel walked to what he thought was the farthest spot in the room away from Johnny.

God I want a chip right about now…

Crossing both arms across his chest, the young hacker tried to take a detached and cool expression as best as he could. He still felt sick to his stomach… and couldn’t wait to get home. At least, he’d be able to hurl in private.

In the meantime, all he could do was sift through what he had picked up... and pray in silence all would go well. As much as he wanted to take his part of the cred and run the frag away with it... he couldn't bring himself to. This was his first time in the "big league". The next few minutes would weigh heavily.

[Vegas]

02:18:15 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Willow - Thief
PAN – Passive

A quick dash down the hall while looking for Chan turned up neither the Dwarf nor any hotel staff. She noted the stairways as she ran past for later should they all need to get away quickly. Ninety-nine percent of the doors down the long hallway were closed and only one couple exited their room more than a little tipsy and arm in arm, enjoying the remnants of a New Year’s celebration.

Where the frag is the little halfer?!

Remembering earlier stepping off the elevator and seeing a small vending alcove with an “Authorized Hotel Personnel Only” sign, she made her way over there and firmly knocked on the door and waited for one of the various hotel staff to open the door. When they finally obliged she had worked herself into a convincing state of panic.

“The penthouse suite, Mr. Wang. There’s been an incident, he needs medical attention very quickly!” She tried to show some sense of composure keeping her voice low as to not alarm other guests and not inflame the hotel’s staff but the speed at which she spoke confirmed the urgency as she motioned to her commlink. “I’ve been trying to place a call to summon medical help, but with all the celebration my calls can not be completed. Please, alert the hotel’s doctor and call an ambulance!”

Watching the hotel staff scurry into action she moved out of their way and let them run the show. Once the plans were in motion she headed back to the room at a brisk pace.

[Konsaki]

02:18:15 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Neko Mahou - Support Shaman
PAN - Passive

Taking a few more breaths to calm herself down, the pink haired yound woman closed her eyes for a second and just stood there leaning on the wall. Her ears were twitching and rotating around, just following the sounds of her team mates move around the deluxe hotel suite, though she never really paid the twitches too much attention. With one last breath, Hikaru opened her eyes once more and pressed a few buttons on the commlink strapped to her hip, pulling up an AR view of the room on her glasses. Looking it over quickly, she pushed slightly pushed off from the wall and slowly made her way towards the front door, trying not to get in anyones way.
Reaching the front door to the suite, she changed directions slightly and opened up the small half-bath that was right next to it. Entering, she moved infront of the sink and just stood there for a second, examining her tear streaked face and how pitiful she looked. Turning on the faucet, the sound of running water could be heard as she just continued to look for a little longer, soaking in the look of her own purple eyes.

'My first big run... Why did this have to happen? My Johnson, which Dad set me up with, is dead... Right at the end of it all too. I mean, we were just about to be paid and party the night away until this happened. Then, I make a fool of myself by breaking down into tears and crying like a little girl... Oyaji must think I'm too young for this stuff now...', she thought as she just looked in the mirror before leaning down and trying to clean herself up some.
Pulling the hand towel off the ring beside the small sink, she dryed off her face, which looked alot better now that she cleaned it up, though there were conflicting emotions running over it. One could still see the sadness from before, but mixed in with it were a look of pity and anger she felt for herself. 'It's not fair that this happened... Mr Wang shouldn't have had this happen just for some fireworks... I shouldn't have to be dealing with this right now... All I wanted was some adventure and excitement, not finding my boss lying face down in his own blood... It's not fair...', Hikaru continued to think as she looked down at the water still running in the sink, swirlind down and around into the drain, before yelling, "It's not fair!"