Up from the Bottom, Wipe Those Tears and Pass the Ammo Options

[BlackHat]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:36:10
Smith
PAN - Hidden

After Smith transfered his half of the money, he smiled at spring, who had been doing a wonderful job of pretending not to overhear Smith and Fortunato talking about their upcoming job. Unfortunately, he had kind of hoped to pique her interest, so he could bring up an arrangement he had in mind. Instead, since he had his commlink out, already, he decided to try a different tactic.

"That reminds me. Is there a number I can contact you at?" He shrugged, "I'm sure we'll be in the market for more of this stuff, soon - and probably in a position to send more business your way."

[adamu]

Karnivore Karl's
Friday 8/22/70 22:05:50

Big Jimmy led the way through the raucous eatery and through the spacious kitchen - looked like it had been custom designed to accomodate a crew of very large people. No one glanced at them as they went through.

They came out into a narrow service corridor - wasn't finished in the way Sledge assumed it would be if it was built or maintained by Pacific Place. No, this was Underground work - makeshift appendages to decades-old infrastructure. There was just enough light spilling from the kitchen a dozen meters back that the woman had no trouble seeing. Ahead of her in the single-file hallway, Big Jimmy stopped short - around him she could see a door that looked more than anything like a submarine hatch, except that the big circular handle was missing. The troll reached behind some pipes and pulled out a huge cast-iron crescent wrench with chipped red paint, and started turning the bolt that the handle would have been attached to. He talked while he worked. "Simplest security in the world - there just ain't many smoothies could open this. Security's real important, ya know?"

He turned, and that was when Sledge felt a hard, sharp impact between her shoulder blades. "Sorry, Mary Sue," said Big Jimmy. There was regret but no hesitation in his eyes as he swung the wrench in an overhead arc towards her head.

[adamu]

Westwood, Downtown District, Seattle Metroplex
Friday 8/22/70 22:19:50

Before getting out of the Love Machine, Angel had reported that everything was as it had been at the cemetery - she even routed the feed to a utility node where Rocky could access it himself.

Then she went inside for their food. When Rocky looked up from his message to the team, he saw that a Lone Star cruiser had pulled up to the Stuffer, its two occupants also headed in.

[JDragon]

Westwood, Downtown District, Seattle Metroplex
Friday 8/22/70 22:20:02
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

Seeing the Star roll in to the parking lot Rocky kept his head down and shot a quick message to Angel just so she would have the heads up.

<<@Angel:: Heads up, Star inbound. Play it cool.>>

The message was really all he could do, so till something else went down he just kept on eye on what he could see of the Stuffer Shack.

[adamu]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:36:40

It had been over a quarter hour since Johnson had gotten the commcall from Rocky, but other than a brief Message Received reply, he hadn't had time to address it. It wasn't urgent, and he would be able to get back to the troll once he knew more about Fort's disposition and his own plans for the night.

The place's proprietor was more than happy to give her personal number to the face, although she seemed intent on catching a moment with the elf mage before he left. Leaving the college student with Deerwalker, she went over to where Fort was gathering up his various parcels. She got close, but not too close, and remarked quietly, "Hope I'm not overstepping, but you seem like a talented guy that may have gotten off on the wrong foot. Seems like your schooling may not match your calling. I know people that can help with that sort of thing, if it's something you're interested in."

[adamu]

Westwood, Downtown District, Seattle Metroplex
Friday 8/22/70 22:22:00

A couple minutes later, the cops left, snacks and giant Cokes in hand. Angel waited till the coast was clear, and then came back to the van.

The mismatched pair each reflected privately on a life of always looking over their shoulder.

[pragma]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:36:50
Fortunato
PAN - Passive
Astrally Perceiving

He scratched his beard. spring was saying something he'd known, on some level, since he spoke with Rocky about his magic. It was just strange to hear it vocalized. Putting the words in the air made the idea real.

It was like a magic spell.

"I guess I've been thinking the same thing. I'm not going to be free for a while, but I'd be interested in hearing more about what you're talking about. If there's someone I should talk to, I'd like to know about them."

He smiled genuinely.

[BlackHat]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:37:20
Smith
PAN - Hidden

Smith collected spring's information, and was about to follow up with his lead into the conversation he had wanted to have - when she, taking their business to be concluded, walked away, joining Fortunato on the other side of the room, and talking in hushed tones. Smith smirked. He brought up a new message in his commlink, and left it for spring to consider at her leisure. He had hoped to kill two birds with one stone by involving Deerwalker in the conversation, but this meeting had gone on long enough.

<<@spring:: "Thanks for the information. Here is mine. If you find yourself in need of anything done quietly, give me a call - I know a few young problem solvers looking for work. I'm always looking for more, though, so if any of your clients is looking for work, feel free to pass this number along to them, too.">>

He sent it off, and while he was in his inbox, he decided he should reply to Rocky.

<<@Team:: "Sorry for the delay - Fort and I have been in a meeting. It sounds like things are going well. I've got a jammer and tag-eraser, so I'm not as worried about those, immediately. As for the saw, if it doesn't fit on the truck - even if we get our hands on it, we won't be able to bring it to the site, very well. It's critical equipment, though, so Sledge might have an idea how you normally transport them. Fort is going to be busy looking around for a half-hour or so, but if you need an extra pair of hands before he is free, let Sledge or I know. I think we've both got things we need to attend to otherwise, though, and Sledge will be a lot more useful than I will, when it comes to that sort of thing. Keep me informed, in any case.">>

[adamu]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:37:20

As Smith made his commcall, spring and Fortunato were wrapping up their tete a tete. "No problem. Just give me a call if you're interested in an introduction," the masked woman said.

[JDragon]

Westwood, Downtown District, Seattle Metroplex
Friday 8/22/70 22:33:20
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

Rocky and Angel stayed out of sight in the van as they waited for to see if they were going to get any help on picking up the needed equipment for the job.

As the time passed Rocky kept an eye on the feed Angel had provided from the site with the GPR they would need. After about ten minutes of waiting with no response Rocky decided they should get moving since they had a bit of a drive to make. "Lets go grab the truck and then we can meet Smith to get the fake docs for it."


Friday 8/22/70 22:37:50

They were still downtown when the message finally came in from Smith, after reading it over it seemed like he had made the right choice to get moving and started putting a message together to let him know the plan.

<<@Team: Angel and I are going to head back south so we can grab the transportation. Once we have it we'll check in and meet to get the tools we need for the rest of our pick ups. If someone wants to tag along the backup would be great. Any problems let us know.>>

Rocky just hopped he and Angel could pull the heist off on their own. "You going to be able to handle the electronic security on the truck if I can get in?" Angel nodded in the affirmative and then went back to her music. the short conversation, if you could call it that had got Rocky thinking, was he going to have to hotwire the truck, or would she be able to start it up and hand control over to him? With that in mind he pulled up his comm and started doing some searches looking for instructions on how to hotwire a car, this was going to be a new experience for him.

[JDragon]

Westwood, Downtown District, Seattle Metroplex
Friday 8/22/70 22:35:02
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

<<@Angel::>>

Rocky and Angel continued south out of the downtown district, letting the auto-nav do the driving so they would not attract any unwanted attention. Rocky knew the Star had not been there for them, but it still wasn't any fun having them that close. As the van plodded along Rocky started working through a plan to get the truck they were going to need. He just hopped Smith would be ready to make it disappear so he didn't end up in jail.


Boise, Auburn - Fringe of Enumclaw
Friday 8/22/70 23:47:52

The drive had taken a while but gone smoothly getting them back to where they had found the trucks with the best chance of them actually getting away with one. As they got closer, Angel slipped in to the matrix to work on getting them information on the site security and some video feeds of the area. Within a few minutes Rocky had a feed coming in to his comm with a few video feeds as well as a site plan, which included the location of all the vehicles and security personal. Once those feeds were available Rocky picked his target, which was a lone truck at the south end of the site with a few buildings and other equipment between it and the main part of the site. Knowing where the truck was allowed him to then work on how they were going to get away as quietly as possible and allow multiple options for escape routes. The main route he planned headed them straight for the Barrens. Maybe that will make them think twice about following, and if they do they'll get less support and give us more options if we have to dump it and run.

With the target chosen and an escape route set up the next step was getting in, looking over at Angel he tried to set up the next part of the plan. "Can you cause a false alarm in the security system that will draw the Knights to the north end of the site and make sure I don't leave a record on their camera systems?"

Angel thought about it for a minute and then shook her head in the negative, "I can do one or the other for sure, but trying both could cause both to fail." Rocky wasn't thrilled with the answer, but getting one part done for sure was better than nothing. "Ok, so we go for some hired help for the distraction."

It didn't take long this close to the barrens to find a group hanging around that might be up for a little chaos. Rocky stopped the van about 2 blocks from the group and turned to Angel, "Ok, I'm gonna see if I can get these dregs to provide a cheap distraction for us to get out job done. Once I'm out, take the van down the street and around the corner. I'll leave a channel open so you know whats going on. If something goes wrong I'll try to get to you, if I can't take off, and let Smith know what happened." Digging in to his pockets Rocky pulled his cash out and pull about 500:nuyen: out of the stack, the rest he put in his duffel bag. He shoved his spending money in his pocket and opened the van and climbed out, quickly closing the door and knocking on the side to let Angel know she was good to get moving.

As he stood there slowing stretching and standing at his full height, his body started started to protest. It wasn't enough to stop him but it did slow him down a little. Crap, why did doc ever have to give me those fucking pills. With a little work he was able to work the kinks out and get back in to control of his body. He slowly started walking toward the crowd, as he went he made sure his pistol was in its holster at the small of his back. He cracked all the knuckles on both hands and tried to get his stiff joints moving after being folded up in the back of the van for the evening.

Once he got about a block from the crowd they stopped talking and took a serious look at him as he approached. The group consisted of two orks, with two humans and what looked like a troll or another really big ork at the back of the group. Here goes nothing, fuck isn't this Smith's job? "Hoi chummers! Who wants to make some quick nuyen?" Rocky figured his best chance was to keep it simple and get straight to the point.

An ork wearing a leather jacket and carrying what appeared to be a baseball bat stepped up and glared at Rocky, "What you want Trog?"

"Its simple, even for you. I give you a stack of nuyen, and then you and your crew wander over to that new construction down the street and give the Knights something to worry about other than me and my crew." Rocky was really sure how it was going so far, but at least no one was swinging or shooting just yet.

The ork twirled the bat a bit as he acted like he was thinking about the offer. "What you offer'n?"

"Lets say 150:nuyen: for you and your crew, thats 30:nuyen: each for walking about 10 blocks and about 10 min of breaking shit, which I'm sure most of you would do for free if you didn't have to walk."

It looked like he had the orks attention, but was sure he wasn't going to get away with on 150 for the work, and wasn't even surprised at the counter of 500:nuyen:. They went back and forth for a few minutes and finally agreed on 300:nuyen: for the job. As he walked away Rocky hoped they would go through with it, he had to pay upfront so they wouldn't have to come back in the wrong direction when leaving the area.

Rocky was starting to fell better about this whole thing, he wasn't sure just he and Angel were going to actually be able to pull the job off, but they were making progress.

Friday 8/22/70 23:59:39

The plan had been for his new friends to go to work at midnight, which had given Rocky enough time to jog back to the van, which his body yelled about the whole time and then get over to the south side of the construction site.

He sat in the back of the van with the back doors open waiting for the noise to start. They were a couple minutes late, but the showed up and he could hear them from the three blocks the site stretched. With in another couple minutes he could see the indicators for the locations of the Knights moving away from him and toward his new friends, on the feed Angel had been able to set up. Then Rocky was on the move again, this time the complaints from his body were not as bad with the adrenalin that had started pumping through his system as he prepared to add grand theft to the list of crimes he had committed in the last three weeks since leaving his old life behind. FUCK! How can it have only been three weeks, it seemed like it had been years.

As he approached the gate he thought he heard a lock click as Angle came over the comm to let him know the electronic security was under control for the moment. Moving up to the gate he touched it lightly to make sure it didn't still have power to it. When his hair didn't stand on end, he got a solid grip on the gate and slowly rolled it open, doing his best to keep it quite. In the distance he could see their target, setting quietly aware it was about to go for a trip.

He did his best to stay to the shadows and tried not to knock anything over that might get someone's attention, not that it was real likely, he could hear the screams of his hired crew and the Knights as well. Looking the truck over from a distance he didn't see anyone around it, so he moved in. Walking around quickly he scanned for any easy found RFID tags which he saw none, but he did catch blocks behind the wheels which he pulled and set off out of the way.

<<@Angel::Can you open the door for me? Or am I breaking a window?>>

The only response Rocky got was the sound of the door lock popping open. "Wiz!" Things had actually started to quite down across the site so he really didn't want to start the truck just yet if he could help it.

<<@Angel::You going to be able to start it too? If so give me a minute to get it out to the street.>>


<<@Rocky::Just tell me when.>>

With that Rocky went to work, leaving the door open he moved around back to get a good grip, and put his back in to it. This was not a small truck, but after a few seconds it started to move. Once he had broken gravity's hold on it he started to move back toward the drivers side door, keeping pressure on it so it wouldn't stop rolling. Once at the door he took up a position where he had a good grip on the truck and could reach the steering wheel. With in a couple minutes he was passing back through the gate on to the street. AS he sent the go message to Angel he heard the tell tell sound of gun shots. Guess they didn't know how to keep it from escalating.

<<@Angel::Start it up!>>

With a roar the truck came to life and Rocky jumped up in to the cab, pulling the door closed behind him. The cab was not really set up for Trolls, but it had more space than the van did. He dropped the truck in to 2nd gear since it was already moving and headed down the street per the map on him comm link.

<<@Angel::Ok, hit the road and don't look back. I'll be right behind you.>>

Once he was a couple blocks from the site he sent a message out to the team.

<<@Team::Truck acquired, where we going to clean it? >>

[pragma]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:37:20
Fortunato
PAN - Passive
Astrally Perceiving

Fortunato nodded and walked out of the store. Outside he dropped astral perception almost immediately and guided Smith around a corner.

"If you want to stay in touch with me, say my name followed by whatever message you need to get to me. Sound good. Now hold on a minute."

Focusing for a moment, Fortunato pulled a watcher spirit from the aether and instructed it to follow Johnson and to relay messages that began with his name to him. He wiped his signature.

"This should work for two hours. I should be back in touch by normal methods then, so this should be about it."

Walking onto the street, Fortunato hailed a cab.

[BlackHat]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:41:50
Smith
PAN - Hidden

Smith nodded, and as soon as Fortunato was off in his taxi, he headed back into the shop to check up on Deerwalker. As he opened the door he mumbled quietly, "Fortuanto. Testing. 1. 2. 3." Smith smirked, and didn't really expect a reply.

Inside, he made smalltalk with both Deerwalker and spring for a few more minutes before offering to take Deerwalker home - as he had one more meeting to make tonight, and was told to come alone. She tactfully declined, as she and spring had already begun making plans, which suited Adam just fine. A few more minutes of goodbyes, and confirmation that his earlier text message was received, and that spring would stay in touch, and Adam found himself out on the road again.

He fired off another message to his mystery mechanic. [color=yellow]<<@Anonymous:: En route to Starbucks. Can you still meet me in, say, a half hour?>> Adam was pleased to note, as he constructed his message, and consulted his MapSoft, that not having to return Deerwalker to her place saved him a significant amount of time. Despite confidence in his estimate, he wanted to get there sooner, rather than later.

[adamu]

"Nowhere"
Friday 8/22/70 23:33:51

Adam had gotten an curt but affirmative response on his rescheduling of the meet, along with the reminder to come alone and the warning to expect to take a ride.

He made it to the coffee franchise in plenty of time - it was a hop, skip and a jump from Capital Hill - and seated himself in the window with something warm to drink.

Right on time a small and beat up van pulled up directly in front of where he was sitting, an Asian human behind the wheel waving him out. The Goblin Rock hammering its way out of the vehicle made the coffee bar's plate glass windows shudder. It wasn't exactly as planned, but he went with it.

Once in the shotgun seat, the driver offhandedly tossed a wad of heavy black nylon into Adam's lap. Stopped at a red light, the Asian man said: "If you wanna do biz homes, you put it on."

Holding it up, Adam recognized the item as a so-called magemask. It would render him blind and use white sound in his ears to keep him from getting any aural clues about where he was - as if the screeching trogs on the van's amped up speakers couldn't handle that just fine.

With a shrug, the young man put the thing on and sat back for the ride. By now he was getting very used to this sort of treatment. Indeed, it seemed to be sort of a standard MO for these sorts of meets, at least when he needed the other party more than they needed him. Someday, maybe the roles would be reversed.

This time, however, instead of stopping on a nice suburban street, after about ten minutes it felt like the van was crunching its way over something unpaved - maybe a service road - a park? They rolled to a stop and someone turned off the white sound on the mage mask.

The ork-art cacophany was still going strong. The hood came off.

He was alone in the cab of the van with the Asian man. The windows were all polarized...from the inside-out. He couldn't see outside at all.

"You can call me Eddie. We talk biz here. If it sounds like we can be of some use to each other, we'll take things from there."

[BlackHat]

"Nowhere"
Friday 8/22/70 23:35:30
Smith
PAN - Hidden

"Eddie. Glad to meet you." Smith offered his hand, and a smile. "Call me Smith."

"As for how useful we might be to one another, I'll let you decide."

"Short term. I'm looking for some do-it-yourself kits - license-plates that change, microchips to foil the GridGuide, that sort of thing - plus whatever tools we would need to install them, and possibly re-install them. I was told to talk to you."

Smith glanced at the Asian appraisingly, trying to judge if this was a fence or a mechanic, "... That said, if you know a mechanic that can work fast, and not ask a lot of questions, I think, longer term, I would have a lot of work for such a person. I've got two vehicles collecting dust, that I no longer feel safe in - and a third one on the way. There is some minor bullet damage on one of them. That sort of thing."

"Anyway, that is how you could help me. Aside from paying you for your services, is there anything I could do to help you?"

[DireRadiant]

Karnivore Karl's
Friday 8/22/70 22:06:06
Sledge - Hunter Hunted
PAN - Hidden

She couldn't believe it.

Carbon nano tubes laid out in micron thin layers slid over each other and transferred the kinetic energy into a new vector instantaneously over an area logarithmically larger then the carbon steel knife edge. The metric tonnes per cm squared of impact energy diluted to almost nothing. Almost nothing in comparison to the initial force, but still strong enough to send a shockwave shredding through her left shoulder blade and release a spray of ruptured cellular material through out a full muscle group.

Big Jimmy was making the play on her.

The blow from behind knocked her forward, and in the same motion she stepped into his reach, a trick she learned long long ago, snap dropped her hand to her waist pocket and as the taser slid out smoothly, she pulled the trigger. From this range it was going to be hard to miss. A few kilojoules of stored electrical energy discharged in a few milliseconds.

Big Jimmy wasn't taking no for an answer.

She followed the shot with an extended lunge, but the troll brushed the contact points past his torso. For a moment she resisted the motion, but then a twinge reminded her she had someone else there and she stepped into her lunge again, carrying herself away from the knife edge slashing across her exposed back.

Big Jimmy didn't know when to stop.

Stepping around and under, her boosted reflexes slowed it all into a crawl as she planted the taser against his torso and snapped the trigger again.

Big Jimmy tumbled down.

She grabbed the wrench in her other hand and ripped it out of the trolls grip as he convulsed down and went slack, snarling in rage she glared over his body as her other assailant lunged over and stabbed into her midsection. The angle was all wrong, and the armored folds of her suit twisted the energy away.

"... run ..."

A few thousand kilojoules discharged across the tip of the wrench and taser contacts in a miniature bolt of lightning illuminating the scene. Her snarling teeth and rage lit up as she focused on the opponent visible past her ready weapons.

"... while you can..."

Two deep breaths later, Sledge relaxed, and after checking the troll was still breathing, she keyed his commlink and left a message.

"I'm letting you -walk-... you understand."

Message left, Sledge laid down the wrench, reloaded and set away the taser, then started heading back up the tunnel to deal with whatever was going to happen next.

Vut... what a mess... Monica... someone's gonna get seriously hurt for this

[adamu]

Karnivore Karl's
Friday 8/22/70 22:07:00

By the time Sledge finished with Big Jimmy, her other assailant - the EMT - was long gone. Heading back through the kitchen, she was studiously ignored by the crew there, and in no time she was back in the customer-friendly chaos of the ork eatery.

She was hungry. Time to order takeout.

[adamu]

"Nowhere"
Friday 8/22/70 11:36:03

Looking closely at the other fellow, the fence/mechanic question was easily answered by the grease-encrusted fingernails and the multi-tool hanging from a belt notch. The callouses on his hands said he used them. But maybe he was a fence, too.

The young Asian nodded repeatedly, acknowledging Johnson's words. "Do for me?" he responded, "be safe, be reliable, that's all I can ask. Stuff you want isn't that hard to come by, but it's not cheap. Star hates that stuff worse than guns, so there's a premium carrying charge, more if you want installation. But if you're serious about doing business, I can help you. Plates are two-K-per, chips one-K. Tools I'd throw in for free. You need it, now or later, I can offer full service on civilian and commercial vehicles. Not set up for the heavy stuff."

[BlackHat]

"Nowhere"
Friday 8/22/70 23:36:40
Smith
PAN - Hidden

Smith smiled, as well. "No heavy stuff - a bike, a van, maybe a commercial truck." He paused for a moment, wondering if the construction vehicle was going to qualify as 'heavy', or not. It didn't really matter, they were probably going to ditch it after this mission, anyway. He decided to take the opportunity to make his pause look like he was considering whether or not he was willing to pay the mechanic's asking price. "I'd like to order two plates with chips, but 6-kay seems a little steep, even if I have to do all the work myself." Smith had this way of considering an offer that made it clear that he was still interested, but needed a better offer. "I get that you take a lot of risks... that's how I operate, too... but, I mean, isn't the whole point of those toys to keep you off of the Star's radar."

Smith glanced around, feigning slight concern, as though he was getting slightly cold feet. "If you've got the Star all up in your business... maybe they don't work as well as I had heard." The trick, Smith thought, was to read the mark, and push them just enough to get them defensive - but not so much that they take their ball and go home. Smith knew the Asian mechanic took his security very seriously, and he hoped to give the impression that the his comment about the Star had cast doubt on his ability to operate inconspicuously. He was careful not to take the ruse too far - he didn't want to offend him by saying he didn't want to deal with somebody who had the Star's attention. He just hoped to get the mechanic to admit that he didn't have a problem with the Star, so he would have to bring the price down a little bit.

[adamu]

Primary escape route
Saturday 8/23/70 00:00:08

Rocky felt like he was barely off the starting blocks - or, for his sport, barely out of his corner - when he heard sirens on two sides. They were obviously converging on their general location.

Knowing he couldn't outrun them in this thing - and he couldn't hope to ram allof them - he decided to play it cool just like at the convenience store. And sure enough, one moment a couple of cruisers were screaming straight towards him, and the next moment they had whizzed past, sirens dopplering off in the direction of the construction site.

But he knew he only had as long as it took for someone to notice the truck was missing, and then every traffic sensor is town would be tracking them. Couldn't take them all out; even Angel could never hack every single one as they approached it. they didn't have the right tech to smack down the RFIDs they assumed were scattered through the rig's guts. And then it came to him: if you can't hide, you've got to make sure no one is looking for you.

A quick conversation with the little elf girl and five seconds later she told him the truck had been removed from the site's equipment manifests.

Still, sooner or later some meatbag with an actual brain and eyes was going to notice it was gone....

[adamu]

"Nowhere"
Friday 8/22/70 23:37:02

Eddie just kept nodding throughout Johnson's speech. Smiling and nodding, nodding and smiling. When the college student finished his counter, the young Asian made a pillow with his hands and put his head back against the side of the van's interior. It was the first time he'd stopped nodding, but he was smiling even bigger. "Hey, glad to see you're not a chump. Means you might stay alive long enough to be a good repeat customer."

He sat forward again and resumed nodding, but different this time, sort of introspectively, as if agreeing with himself. "Four and a half for the package." He grinned like a Chinese Cheshire Cat and put out his dirty hand to shake on the deal.

[BlackHat]

"Nowhere"
Friday 8/22/70 23:37:20
Smith
PAN - Hidden

Smith held out his hand, but before he shook on it, he said, "I hope to live long enough to be a return customer, too." He winked, "I'm glad I inspire confidence."

He took the hand and shook it. "Okay, four and a half. I guess we'll do the install ourselves. I think we've got the know-how for a job like this, but, if I am mistaken, is the number I have for you the best way to keep in touch?"

[adamu]

"Nowhere"
Friday 8/22/70 23:37:40

Smith got his first "no" of the evening, although the man pretty much kept nodding. "Naw man, here's a new one. This is to the shop, and it's only used by previous customers. That way, if I'm not there one of my boys can help you out. Now come on up front and we'll hammer out the details while I drive you back to civilization."

No hood this time. They were only about two minutes from downtown, in an isolated section of a park just east of Lake Union. As they discussed payment and delivery, Smith couldn't help but notice that despite all this new-found trust, there was no mention of actually going to the shop.

[DireRadiant]

Seattle Streets
Friday 8/22/70 23:59:45
Sledge - Prowling
PAN - Hidden

Mind blank, it took the arrival of the take out packages to make her realize she'd been staring at the same three ARO plates, the same ones she'd just ordered, for the last twenty minutes. Disgusted with herself she slung the carry straps over her shoulder and headed out again. Her comm kept happily lying about who she was all through the mall and out through the streets. All through loading her bike, cruising through town, and heading out in the general direction of the damned trogs. Well, only one left now.

.. vut ... this looks good...

She'd finally been able to turn off her comm broadcast and immediately felt better.

Sledge pulled over, parked the hog, and got off, carefully threading the head of her hammer onto the handle. The vehicle was stripped, up on blocks, and in this part of town, no one was going to come tow the carcass away.

Twenty minutes, a few centilitres of sweat, burning muscles, and a pile of compressed jackrabbit sheet steel later she stopped.

<<@Team::Truck acquired, where we going to clean it? >>

... back to work...

<<@Team:: bringing 20 kilos of ribs and soybeers. eta 13>>

[BlackHat]

Downtown
Friday 8/22/70 23:59:50
Smith
PAN - Hidden

After being escorted safely back to Starbucks, Smith transfered the agreed upon amount of money, with the understanding that the rest would be delivered when the items were, which the mechanic assured him would be within the hour. Not wanting to meet up with the team, only to have to come back this way to pick up the goods, Smith decided to head inside, get a cup of something expensive, and listen to some music, or do some random socializing while he waited.

He wasn't disappointed. A half-hour later, he got the call, and headed outside, where he hopped into the same van. Moments later, he emerged with a nondescript brown box, and a big smile. While he was in there, it sounded like the rest of the team had achieved some notable milestone as well. He put together a quick message.

<<@Team:: "Plates and chips in hand. I also got the necessary tools for a do-it-yourself job. I haven't looked at it yet, but I think between the 4 of us, we should be able to get it connected to the onboard computer without too much trouble. Where would you like to meet? I'll get my equipment, and we can take care of any tags at the same time that we're doing the mod-job.">>