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

[Mister Juan]

02:35:15 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Gabriel
PAN - Hideen

A low chuckle escaped from Gabriel’s lips as he turned away from Cloud.

Don’t smirk.

What kind of comment was that. The hacker couldn’t help himself but simply laugh at it. As much as he liked Hong-Kong, people were almost always terribly stuck up. And people roaming the shadows were even more paranoid then some of the wackos he’d chat up with on the conspiracy theory boards.

As much as Gabriel knew he was somewhat of a newcomer to these kinds of dealing, what he didn’t especially like was to be treated like a retarded puppy. By telling him what to do, Cloud had established himself as a figure of authority, something Gabriel could never help himself but go against. In his own eyes, he was being treated like a simple minded kid. That, he did not appreciate. At all.

There are cameras. Like I don’t fragging know it. Guy’s stiff as a board and probably has one rammed up where light never shined.

Taking a small pack of bubblegum from one of his numerous pockets, Gabriel started unwrapping the foil packaging as he closed in on Hilary Green. Giving her a small nod of acknowledgement. Throwing the little flat bright pink candy in his mouth, he offered a stick to the woman, giving her a wink.

“I’m not too sure what plans you have for the night, Miss Green, but I’m pretty sure they don’t include wasting your time here. What’s done is done, and nothing will change it.” he said in a rather clear Cantonese.

Chewing unceremoniously a few seconds, he continued.

“My good friends and I” added Gabe with a full smile, getting in a little closer into Hilary Green’s personal space “will fix this situation, so you don’t have to worry about it. You’ll avoid the bad press, and your reputation will be as solid as it ever was.”

He yawned heavily, as if the whole affair was boring him to death.

“Now, there are a thousands parties raging on in the city.”

He leaned in a little closer to Hilary, giving her a sly smile and little wink.

“How about you and I go enjoy one of them?”

He started blowing a large bright pink bubble.

[DireRadiant]

02:35:20 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"The Peninsular Group has a strict policy against employees socializing with guests."

Hilary smiled politely, and looking particularly at the young Caucasian, "Honored and favored guests of Wang san are accorded the discretion and full support of The Peninsular Group."

Looking around the room slowly, "The Peninsular Group is obligated by the Governing Council to employ the services of the efficient and esteemed services of the Knight Errant Corporation, a fully owned subsidiary of Ares Macrotech."

"The Peninsular Group will consider ceding this obligation to the honored guests of Wang san..."

Hilary Green waves a hand in a gesture and her appearance shifts to appear as though you are looking at her through the surface of water. "Who is the head of family now and can accept this honored burden?"

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

02:35:17 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

When Gabe starts unpacking his balls, the old man is about to interrupt, thinking if you don´t want to be treated like a little child, startacting like an adult, but waits for a second, to see if anybody else dos - better to let someone else do the talking and point out their mistakes later.
Then the gwai lo woman speaks up and he hasitates again, to see if someone he deemed capable enough was taking charge of the conversation again. He didn´t view the team like a family yet, they definitly have not compleatly figured out who´s in charge of what so far. We need to discuss this for a moment, though it won´t look as suave to ask for a moment of privacy, it´s better then squabbling about the matter with her around or even to negotiate terms that half the team isn´t ok with.
With a quick mental klick, he activates the next best option, sending a request for a com-conference to the team-members which he knows can accept the call without a loud chirp or having to put an indexfinger into their ear.
He can´t grasp why there are still 'profecionals' around, without an unobstrusive means of comunication. When I started in this biz, we didn´t even have cell-phones most of the time, still, I got used to it. About time these hippies enter the 6th world!

[De Badd Ass]

02:35:25 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Fooey - Hidden
Vector Xim - Passive

"Gabe, you dawg! Decided to go for the gold after all."

[TheRedRightHand]

02:35:25 Tuesday 11, febuary 2070 - The Peninsula Hotel

Mike groaned under his breath as Gabe made his move on the Hotel's representative. Fortunately she didn't seemed offended by the feeble attempt at a pass and kept to the business at hand. Very professional. That's a good sign.

Realizing that no one else was going to step in and say anything to her, Mike squared his shoulders, put on his friendliest smile, and stepped forwards giving a slight bow to Ms. Green.

"Ms. Green, I apologize for my young friend's overly familiar manner and for the rest of us being somewhat at a loss for words. This evening's unfortunate events have been quite upsetting to those of us who knew Mr. Wang well, just, as I am sure, they are equally upsetting for yourself and The Peninsular Group. Having such a horrible incident occur in one for your most expensive and secure suites is surely unsettling."

After a sideways glance at the rest of the group, to make sure no one is visibly objecting to his words, he continues.

"Now, Ms. Green, you mentioned your obligation to contact the honorable Errant Knight Corporation in regards to this matter which, of course, none of us would fault you for doing so. There is much to be said for following strict guidelines at times such as this, but perhaps, like you yourself suggested, it might be best to keep this incident "in the family", at least for the time being."

Mike re-fixes his smile and continues, "Mr. Wang was a man of great privacy, and when he recovers, I am sure he would be most upset to find this matter already set before the publics eyes, subject to the most fowl of gossip and exaggeration. Just, as I am equally sure, a famous and highly respected organization like The Peninsular Group, would find it most upsetting to have rumors and gossip of an event like this happening in one their hotels on such an auspicious evening as this one."

He waits for Ms. Green's reaction before continuing.

[DireRadiant]

02:35:32 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

After listening intently, though with a unfocussed look, Hilary Green nods once, and look around "You need a short time to adjust yourselves to this situation."

"I shall be in the foyer."

With a sweeping bow she takes a few steps backwards out of the living room and into the foyer, the room service cart follows after her under it's own power and the foyer door closes."

[Vegas]

02:36:00 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Willow
PAN – Passive

As Hillary Green left the immediate area of the gathered group and her service cart followed her like a dutiful dog, Willow slowly expelled the breath she had been holding. While the team was now out of immediate earshot, she still didn’t let her guard down as she left where she had been standing and moved to join the group as if they were trying to deal with the grief and shock of seeing a fallen friend.

Meanwhile she joined into the comm-conference and subvocalized over her connection her immediate thoughts.

“Well done, all of you. Seems we have a few moments to ourselves to decide where we are to go with this situation being placed in our laps. I think it wise to look into this with or without the hotel’s assistance for our own security.”

[De Badd Ass]

02:36:10 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Fooey - Hidden
Vector Xim - Passive

"Did I just here Mike Root say that Mr. Wang is still alive, and will recover? That's excellent!

"In that case, I think our first order of business is to make sure that nobody gets a second chance to do him in. Are you up to that, Wu? We need to find out where they have taken him."

[toturi]

02:37 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"Find where they have taken him. Find if he is DOA or have the docs managed to revive him. Also, can someone able to look into the astral go take a long hard look and make sure that if he is alive, he isn't one of those shedim things?"

"So we find out whoever is behind this, and find out whether this has anything to do with our job. Let's not dig ourselves any deeper into this mess."

[amra28]

02:37 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Right after Hillary Green leaves the room Wu Xian runs a hand through his hair and takes a few steps around around the room to ease some tensions. Then he makes some motions with his AR gloved hand and connects his commlink to the conference call. Lacking a subvocal mic, Wu Xian uses text messages to reply to the conversation taking place.

Yes, as soon as we verify if Mr. Wang is alive or not and where he is I can get over there to protect him. That is of course if we can get to him.

I agree that we need to investigate to make sure we are not in any danger. Plus it would be a bonus if we can arrange it so that the hotel feels indebted to us for doing it.

[Konsaki]

02:37 Tuesday, 11 Febuary 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Neko - Support Shaman
PAN - Passive

'Aren't you guys missing something? She was asking something about who our 'Head of family' was now... She means a leader right? I'm pretty sure she cast a divination type spell before asking us.', the teenaged Neko typed out on her commlink, silently cursing her not having a mic or AR gloves like the other people had.

[DireRadiant]

02:35:32 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Hotel Furama 1 Connaught Road, Central, Hong Kong SAR

The top floor revolving restaurant offered a spectacular view of the fire works in the harbor, and all the guests had enjoyed the propitious welcoming of the new year. William Fu had been very pleased. His family had owned the hotel for over a century now, and as a younger son on this generation he had performed the expected duty of educating himself into a respected trade. It hadn't even been lip service, he didn't in any way regret the long hard hours of study and work. He had all the advantages anyone could want, but it actually felt good to be doing a good job contributing to the community. So despite growing up realizing he never needed to work, he'd become one of the top surgeons in Hong Kong, and one of the group of respected leaders of medicine in the entire region. While he had some idea how much respect his efforts got from others, it could never compare to the self respect he felt for his accomplishments.

But that lead to the other problem. He had the clout to clear his calendar for nights like these, there had to be some benefit for all the hard work he'd put in. As a representative of the family he had to keep up the appearances during a social event, but he couldn't hold off any longer. During the past five minutes he'd discretely maneuvered himself from the center of the celebrations and now he sat down in one of the private rooms off of the revolving restaurant floor and went to work.

Diving into VR he did what he really excelled at, which was to organize a team of dedicated professionals to synergistically accomplish what a single one of them could not do. He jumped straight into the hot box and started running the system checks while he waited for the others to clear the security checks and be allowed through the operating room firewalls. The first one through was Ted Lo, the best remote waldo driver this side of the planet, or probably on the planet, since the others were working out of Zurich Orbital, "Buddha! Who the hell is this that can get Bill Fu to get his own hands bloody on New Year's?"

William Fu simply highlighted the NDA icon and didn't answer. He knew that was the way his friend Johnny Wang would want it.

[De Badd Ass]

02:37:10 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Fooey - Hidden
Vector Xim - Passive

"Don't let that worry you, Ms. Neko. Ms. Green just meant that Mr. Wang is in no condition to make decisions for himself at the moment. One of you other Wangs needs to step forward now, and she doesn't wish to presume who that might be.

"I'm not one of the relatives, so I won't nominate anybody."

[BlackHat]

02:37:13 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Blaze - Pyrokinetic
PAN - Hidden

Blaze listened in quietly as he paced around the room with the others. The night seemed to have gone from a relativly straightforward job to a bunch of chinese politics faster than he could light a match. It didn't help that he couldn't follow what was being said - but now the team needed to produce a leader - or a family member. Surely someone on the team mistranslated that last part - but no one was speaking up to deny it.

He was all for covering his ass, and getting to the bottom of this thing - but as useless as hewas feeling on the last job, he was feeling twice as useless now. He checked the time in AR, and began to pace some more - lighting up a cigarette.

"Look," started Blaze, speaking in the real world, but having his voice echo in AR. "Someone just step up and volunteer to lead so we can get out of here and start doing something." He ashed his cigarette on the carpet. "I'll fucking do it if it gets us moving - but I don't think that chick is gonna like it."

[toturi]

02:38 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"Usually the oldest person gets to be the head of the family. So if revered elder doesn't mind, he can be our figurative head, but someone else can be the mouth and do all the talking, if our ancient friend does not feel he is up to it."

[MK Ultra]

02:37:23 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

>>>User-ID #65085872 has been unregistered<<<

[[invalid access-ID!]]

"Damn dog-brain!" The old man curses under his breath, as he is suddenly cut from the wireless conversation. Something has made his comlink´s modified ID-chip churn out a new bogus code and the changed access ID didn´t mix well with the com-conference´s security-protocoll, disconnecting the elder brother from the very conference-call, he had initiated himself.
"I think, ..." he starts to talk aloud, while he is mentally whiping his OS into doing his bidding.

[[*********]]

[[access-code validatet]]

>>>User-ID #27444854448 has joined the conference<<<

"Ms. Green refered to the team as 'family', just like Cloud did. So the question is, with Mr. Johnson bussy, who is in charge of the team?"

Of course it would be my duty, to appoint a leader, since I am the only one related to Jhonny by blood! But let´s see what the kindergarden is saying about this.

[MK Ultra]

02:38:39 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

After reading the channel´s history for a moment, to see what he missed in the seconds he was offline, the elderly man casts a hard look on Cloud -NOT UP TO IT! WHO DOS THS KID THINK HE IS TALKING ABOUT?- but quickly softens up a bit into a straight, but friendly expression, as he replys to the mercenary´s suggestion with a humble bow and says:

"I would be honored to nominally head the team. I would delegate the talking to Willow - she was the one we sent to notify the hotel staff in the first place, after all!

Let´s give the youth a chance to prove herself. She´s only a girl and a changed one on top of that, but at least she´s lokal and no gwai lo!

So -just so we are all on the same page- the points we are negotiating about are ...

The old man trys to quickly resolve the discussion, so they don´t let Ms. Green wait too long and non of the brash team-members trys to run away with the situation again.

[DireRadiant]

02:43:03 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

There is a polite knock on the wooden door, and Hilary Green with an unfocussed gleam in her eyes re enters the living room trailed by her faithful serving cart,

"Apologies, The Peninsular Group finds itself in some need to respond to some queries and requires immediate advice on how this matter is to proceed."

[MK Ultra]

02:43:33 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

The old man stepped into the middle of the room and, facing the security mage, wraped his left hand around his right fist and gave a slight bow.

"We thank The Paninsular Group for the privacy you have granted us and appreciate your willingness to cooperate in a discreet manner. I will decide in the interest of my nephew untill he has recovered sufficiently!"

He made a slight pause and vaguely audiable took a deep breath, to emphasise the point that he was now the head of this family and underline the old age which gave him authority. Slowly gesturing towards Mike who had allready started the negotiation with Green, before she had left them to talk amongst themselves, while he restates their willingness to cooperate, the old man lets his hand move on without stopping on Mike for a second, in a simple but gracefull motion, until it points towards Willow just the moment he introduces her.

"We will work with The Paninsular Group, to solve this situation mutually satisfactory. You can sattle on the details with my god-granddaughter Xiao Liu."

With that, he gave Willow and Mike the cue to enter negotiations, while he crossed his arms behind his back, his red and blue eye unwaveringly trained on Hillary Green´s, ready to assist the young girl and man by showing the right mimics to every word of the PG´s representative.

[TheRedRightHand]

02:43:33 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

At the old man's cue Mike also gives a slight bow to Mrs. Green, then steps slightly aside as a sign of respect to Willow's position in these discussions. Playing his part, he takes up the traditional subordinate position to her, slightly behind and to the left, ready to heed her commands or offer his assistance, making sure he shows the proper resect to both her and her grandfather in front of Mrs. green.

[DireRadiant]

02:54:23 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

After a long series of rapid fire Cantonese reminiscent of the early morning fish market, Hilary Green nodded and bowed her acceptance, and stepped over to the serving cart and threw back the brilliant white starched linen cover. Under the cover is a standard biomedical sample collection unit and attached biometric recording devices. The retinal reader eye stalk telescopes up and the palm reader and sampler start blinking their ready states.

An ARO projection over the cart starts projecting a statement of the conditions in a vibrant dark calligraphy on a red bordered scroll.

"Let us hope for an auspicious beginning to a long and fruitful relationship between the Peninsular group and the Wang clan."

[De Badd Ass]

02:54:24 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Fooey - Hidden
Vector Xim - Passive

Those of you still tapped into the conference call hear the sound of Fooey choking.

"Sorry about that, gang. Something went down the wrong way."

[DireRadiant]

02:54:35 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Hong Kong

Aberdeen Control Center

It starts with a little thing. Traffic analysis routinely cross checked against key data mixed with an insurance claim triggers a follow up analysis, which results in a report which triggers yet a wider net run by a smarter agent, which adds more confidential data and resources. Like that final snowflake is the tiniest thing, but the end result is a mountain falling.

Machinery, programmed long ago, wakes up, and starts doing its work, and status indicators go blue on a virtual monitoring board. Idly, the busy metahuman on overwatch verifies the startup requirements are met. Then according to protocol, bumps the matter upstairs and tries to forget about the fact that somewhere in the city a full squad of exoskelatal powered metahumans are being issued with enough firepower to finish a war.

South China Morning Post

Finally the horde of remote agents have been able to get through to someone with the authority to shunt them to something more productive, or unleash them to further hound their quarry and bring it down. Shadowbeat reporter Weng Lo has just reviewed the next scream sheet release and finally has time to turn his attention to the cloud of blinking ARO lights trying to gain his attention.

... Wang? ... That Wang?...

Knight Errant Intelligence Division

It was an eternal struggle to penetrate the mass of Oriental obligation and connections, regardless of what everyone thought, Officer Li was going to be efficient and honest. Normally the KE division would respect the privacy rights in cases where there was obviously some serious foul play. There was no way anyone got flatlined at the Peninsular Hotel and have it not be reported to KE, but that was exactly what it looked like had just happened. The matter simply demanded further investigation. Especially after confirmation that there were at least 6 current investigative targets spending that night at the Peninsular Hotel. Not the least of which was one Johnny Wang.

Temple Street

The ritual was subtly off, not wrong, just not as expected. The Beneficent Orange Scarf Society had spent 12 years in preparation, and this kind of subtle change, while not immediately damaging meant that they had to carefully review their work before proceeding with the next step. Half of the group had gone out to double check their initial findings, while the rest of them were going to have to do another exhaustive divinatory ritual.

Despite the urgency of the situation the Society had agreed it was not yet time to make the ultimate step of sacrificing the temple goat.

[DireRadiant]

02:54:30 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

After a brief pause Hilary Green reaches into a lower shelf of the cart and brings out a small portable self powered incinerator and places it to the side.

"While it is necessary for the scan to take some small biological samples, this should reassure you that you are not exposed to any extended risks."

"So who is first?"

[TheRedRightHand]

Mike shruggs, then steps forwards and offers out his hand.