IC: Working Nights, Earning a living the only way we can Options

[adamu]

"Nice thought, Yer Radiance, but it ain't gon' come ta that. Natcherly the staff shows up before any o' the esteemed clientele. We put 'em on ice as they show. The place never does open fer biz. Once we've done all the squeezin' we's set ta do, at some point we beat feet afore the powers that be tip to trouble and send in the heavies." The tiny, unshaven man managed to light a new cigarette without ever stopping his manic rasp of a speech.
"Now this place opens at eleven in the AM, so if'n y'all're in agreement on this, we got our work cut out fer us - we gotta git that contraption secured in the van in case we need to git outta Dodge quick, we gotta git the beer chute door ta look untampered with, an' we gotta be ready ta hit anyone comin' in either door, an' do it quick, cuz there's no tellin' how early they come in."

[Fortune]

Ryan slumps back onto his stool after having been lying belly-down across the bar watching Al at work.

"Sounds like a plan. I'm thinkin' we should prob'ly be movin' the van ... and my ride, of course. Any suggestions on where t' stash 'em?"

[BishopMcQ]

::October 18, 2070 1030, Bar Krutenau, Tacoma::

The last several hours exemplified the hurry up and wait philosophy of the streets. After removing all the tags that could be found on the forge, Bubbles and Pesto placed it in the van which is parked around the corner in an alleyway. The motorcycle is stashed in the nearest parking garage to avoid suspicion.

Walking back from the bar, Al falls back a few paces downwind from the rest and vents out his airtank. While Bubbles hides the signs of the team's forced entry, Al scuffs the tracks from the alleyway and goes inside.

A pot of soykaf brews behind the bar, Al drinking cups of the stuff black as night. Ryan and Sun have spent most of the time, giving each other come hither stares as they idly flirt. So far, Sun seems to be winning, but the elf with a thousand faces has given in to a few of the gunslinger's requests. The majority of the team is amped up on Long Haul, watching the world slip by with a crystal clarity of synthesized adrenaline and neurotransmitters.

On the bar, cigarettes have become communal property with Lucky Strikes, Gauloises and Epique Menthols all tossed out. Two ashtrays, one for the elves and one for everyone else have dozens of butts littering them.

Most of the optical chips were encrypted, but between the hacker and rigger's combined efforts they have been decrypted. The encrypted files deal with medical treatises, chemical engineering, matrix design theory, and distribution schedules. What Al is able to glean is that Seattle is a test market, thus far positive results have outweighed the negative side effects of subject death. Substantial research on AIPS and references to a clinic in Georgetown are also listed. The unencrypted files appear to be receipts for the Bar Krutenau, schedules and invoices for delivery--all traditional business files.

As the time of opening gets closer, members of the team drop behind the bar and step into the office and restrooms to conceal their presence. The sound of a maglock unsealing, the front door opening, closing and the mock resealing alerts you to the first arrival for the day. Booted feet strike the floor in the steady cadence of a woman who is sure of herself. Image links show video footage from Pesto's flyspy of a woman in her late twenties. She's wearing platform combat boots, a short skirt and a blouse tied high to reveal gym perfected abs and nanotattoos crawling beneath her flesh.

[DireRadiant]

She stank of beer.

Her bright Neon Yellow Tees were soaked and sticking to her torso. Blissfully ignoring the clinging outfit the troll happily twisted the final nuts on her third full re assembly of the beer taps and the mechanism of tubing and wires and controllers behind the bar. If she'd gotten this right, Bubbles thought there might be enough pressure to spray the green soybeer across the room from the leftmost nozzle.

"Georgetown clinic? Bound to have some blues and reds."

At the signal indicating an approaching target, she swallowed her gum with a strained gulp, and laid herself flat in a crunched position on the floor behind the bar.

[amra28]

Pesto passes the time eating some snack food and sipping on a couple of cocktails. In between sips of his drink the orc spends time cracking the encryption on some of the optical chips. Occasional he sneeks a peek at the flirting couple and cracks a smile.

When the time gets closer to zero hour the orc gets his pistol out, puts on the silencer and picks out the best place to hide.

[BishopMcQ]

At the signal of beer spraying the target, everyone clears out of their hiding places and waylays the new entrance.

Dark, foamy beer soaks and begins to stain the white blouse, as the woman screams. Her hand instinctively begins to drop towards the small of her back. A wide pool of beer begins to form near her feet.

[Fortune]

A grinning Flintlock steps out from behind the office door and brings his twin Colt Americas to bear on the woman. Before his target can bring whatever weapon she is reaching for into action, the elven gunslinger lets loose with both guns.

[BishopMcQ]

Seeing the gunslinger step out of the shadows, the woman throws herself into a half cartwheel. She cleanly dodges the first shot which slams into a table. The second shot catches her thigh and she is unable to catch herself before the leg gives out under her weight.

Fortune's fickle smile causes the third shot to go wide, but the last round catches her shoulder. The woman splays out unceremoniously shot, her body twitching occassionally from smaller surges of electricity.

[adamu]

After taking a moment to admire the image of the woman on his commlink's plasma screen, Al started out of the office on Flint's heels, only to remember he'd left his shotgun on the desk. By the time he'd collected it and made it out to the corridor, the shooting had stopped, and the combat-booted beauty was in a heap on the floor in a pool of soybeer.

Approaching her, but careful to stay a few meters away in case she was playing possum, he rested his Remington back over one shoulder and admired the elf's handiwork. "Well, looks like that there new-fangled fake ammo's got some uses. We done won, an' no harm done."

Squatting down for a closer look, he continued, "Reckon we better git 'er trussed up, searched, an' in the office fer a chat. Now, about that, while it's true that more wimmin've been overcome by ol' Al's charms than kin readily be counted on the fingers of a hunnerd lawless men, well, this here filly's the type that could make me fergit my perfessional demeanor - left alone, things atween me an' her could git downright scandalous, yes they could. So in the interest o' workplace ethics, I'm thinkin' we turn Sunny loose on her fer the actual interrogationalizin'."

[amra28]

Once the signal is given Pesto starts his part of the show. he pops up a window in his AR field and attempts to look for and intercept any wireless traffic from their victim. Hopefully it will be over so fast that she will not have time to call in the calvary.

[Fortune]

A slightly bloodthirsty smile paints the elf's features as he watches his target fall. Dropping to on knee just outside the office as Al moves forward, Ryan slips one of the pistols back into its holster on his right ankle. He shakes his head in response to the human's comment about the ammunition.

"Nah, feel's like cheatin'. You were right the first time."

Making his way back to his now-customary bar stool, he slides the other Colt into place up his left sleeve.

"Matters none t' me who does the questionin'."

[DireRadiant]

Refocusing her eyes after her set of calculations Bubbles glanced at the wand in her hand, kept it pointed at the woman, then eyed the tap mechanism in her hand.

Looking back up at the team, "That was only 5 liters a second, I think I can boost it to at least 15!"

"Just need a smaller pipe and higher pressure."

With her other hand she starts scavenging behind the bar.

[Ophis]

"Well we'll give are new friend here a little while to recover then I'll talk to her. I'll want her handcuffed in the office. Would some one, not you Al be willing to play bad cop? Pesto could you mock up a program that would make her see a police badges when we flash cards at her?"

Sun grins, she's starting to come up with an angle.

[Fortune]

A wide and not altogether pleasant grin of anticipation lights up Ryan's face at the prospect.

"Bin down that street a few times. Usually worked out pretty good too."

The elf pulls a couple of small slap patches from his jacket pocket and winks as he flashes them to Sun.

"I'm thinkin' these jus' might come in handy."

[Ophis]

"Stim patches? Or contraceptives for later?"

Sun's grin is suggestive and oh so wicked.

[Fortune]

Ryan pauses for a moment, as if deeply contemplating something, then shakes his head decisively as if making a critical choice, he flashes the elf what he thinks is a rueful smile.

"Nah. First things first."

He wanders over to Sun and slips the patches into her hand.

"Never fails. 'S always bizness before pleasure, right?"

[adamu]

Seeing that everyone else on the team was either busy with tech stuff or handling the prisoner - or just flirting shamelessly - Al figured somebody'd better keep their eyes on the feed from Clara.

He grabbed a cold can of Grolsch from the fridge behind the bar, and since his earlier hiding place was about to become an interrogation room, he settled into a nice comfortable spot on the counter in the men's can, his back against the dirty mirror, one combat boot in a sink, the other dangling off the edge and not coming near reaching the floor. Strap around his neck, his shotgun rested on his lap.

He split the screen on his commlink between the drone's visual and the files he'd been reading, and sent the important ones with a summary to Sun. Then he filled the screen with the exterior feed, glued his lips to the beer can and his eyes to the commlink, and started reviewing the files he'd read in his mind.

[Fortune]

Looking around, Ryan is surprised to see that nobody has moved to either search or secure their prisoner. Rolling his eyes skyward and heaving a dramatic sigh, he makes his way over to the fallen human.

"So, we got any rope?"

A slight mental command springs a slim stun baton into the elf's right hand from its hiding place up his sleeve. Warily, he kneels beside the woman and quickly searches her for weapons and other items of interest.

[DireRadiant]

Bubbles tosses a roll of tubing over the counter.

"Need her to talk?"

The troll waves the beer hose suggestively, "After Knuckles and some of the boys get filled with this stuff, they can't shut up ever."

Wrinkling her nose slightly as she pauses, "Course, they also tell the most outrageous lies too."

[adamu]

Sitting on the bathroom counter, Al remembered the detail that had nagged at the back of his hyperactive mind. Quickly checking the data on his comm, he got up and poked his head out of the bathroom -
"Hey, y'all, looks from the bar's files like our chica's name is Tara, right on time fer work. Dunno how tied up she is in all this...no pun intended," he added as he saw Flint looking for rope.
"Anyhow, another skirt name o' Hayden is supposed ta be showin' up in the next thirty or so, so ya'd all best git this one inta the office and everyone git back outta sight."
And with that, he took his own advice and disappeared into the bathroom.

[Fortune]

Discouraged that his cursory search turned up nothing of interest, Ryan begins stripping the clothing from the unconscious woman. He eyes the tubing offered by Bubbles for a moment, then casts a disapproving glance in the troll's direction.

"'Zat the best we can find? Any 'lectric cords or duct tape 'round?"

[BishopMcQ]

Ryan

You kneel down and run one hand over the woman's body. There are obvious calluses in the small of her back where it looks like she traditionally where's a holster and the gun rubs against her skin. No holster is present at the moment.

Strict professionalism takes over as you search the woman thoroughly to ensure that she is not hiding anything inappropriate. The skirt is a reversible one, a red plaid currently showing with a blue plaid pattern on the underside. You notice something out of place when examining Tara's bra through the soaked blouse. Peeling off her blouse, it becomes more obvious that the underwire is removable. As you pull it out, the underwire separates. The two pieces of the underwire serve as handles for a short length of monowire.

Aware that this woman is more than just a bartender, you check the rest of her clothing for similar modifications. You find that the platforms on her combat boots are removable. In one boot is an aerosol can and a separate electronic device. The other boot has a t-shirt, skirt and panties ultra-compressed to provide a change of clothes.

[DireRadiant]

With a hurt look, Bubbles pushes her head against the ceiling tiles lifting a panel and looks around briefly, then uses her hand and pushes up a neighboring panel and moves her hand around.

A moment later she hunches down again and tosses over a coil of unused fiber cable she found.

Bubbles stares at the elf inquiringly.

[Fortune]

The elf piles the clothing, detonator, and other items of interest on the bar. Turning, he is just about to pick up the tubing to secure their prisoner, still shaking his head in disgust, when Bubbles finds something better. Casting a small smile and brief nod her way, Ryan scoops up the cable and goes to work.

[DireRadiant]

Looking over the pile of items on the counter, Bubbles carefully moves one out from the pile withthe tip of her fingernail.

"Remote activator. Not kind I work with, lots of standard safety features built in. Usually find in stuff that goes "..*** POP ***