IC: Working Days, Trapped between the Candle and the Star Options

[HeySparky]

"Esther Fader." She tosses her head at the russian woman making arrangements at the desk, "She always so cheery?"

Esther cranks up her audio enchancement seeing if she can catch what rooms they were going to be in.

[krayola red]

Juan winks at Esther. "Perhaps you should go over and strike up a conversation. Your eternally bubbly spirit will undoubtedly rub off on her."

[HeySparky]

Edana's harshly planed face furrows even more dramatically. Who was this guy? He certainly wasn't her reclusive and anti-social roommate. But then, she wasn't quite herself at home either. "I'm not here for chit-chat." Her eyes cut to the russian woman, a cigarette dangling from her lips as she peels several notes off a stack of scrip. "Do like to know what to call people though," she mutters.

[Buddha72]

"She can be.....efficient at times but her work is solid." As Sora speaks she takes the moment to look over the rest of the crew as they trickle in. "It's an occupational hazard from working these types of jobs but she knows what she's doing."

[Mister Juan]

After paying the dwarf manning the reception booth, which was pretty much a small slit with a huge ballistic glass window, cash, she folded the stack of scrip into one of her numerous pockets. Maglock key in hand, she approached the team.

As she spoke in her thick russian accent, ashes fell from her cigarette and unto the dirty green synthcarpet.

“Glad you could join us” she said to Sora with a brief nod.

Truth be told, Ludi was damn glad Sora was now aboard. Having a familiar face around would calm her down... at least a bit.

She looked over at the other four operatives, opened her mouth as if she was about to pass some sort of remark but closed it around her cigarette. Her boots thudded on the floor as she simply exited the lobby towards the room she had just rented.

[BishopMcQ]

Team
You follow your fearless leader out the lobby and along the rundown building. She stops in front of door 17.

"These are ours for the next 48 hours." She gestures to 17 and 18.

Inside, it's everything you would expect from a ratty motel. Small table with chair, lumpy mattress on a cracked box spring, and a trideo display that has one color miscalibrated so it's like watching a 20th century 3d image without their antiquated glasses.

At the very least, no one should bug you while you are here.

[Penta]

Penta looks about nonchalantly as he enters the rooms. "So, where should we begin?"

[Buddha72]

Sora smiles for a moment at Ludi. At least I know someone on this job. She falls into step behind the rest of the group as they make their way to the room or HQ for the moment.

She feels some of anxiety leave her as the first irregular speaks up and starts things rolling. "How about bringing me up to speed with the plan so far?" She moves as she talks and picks a spot of relatively clean wall to lean against as she unwraps the scarf from her face and neck. She takes a moment to look over the various runners assembled for this job.

[HeySparky]

Esther is a tall troll woman with an angularly planed face and swept back medium-length horns. She has to stoop to enter the room and looks around taking in the shabby state with unfeigned indifference. Her skin is a deep black, her eyes a bright crystal blue. She glances at the mirror and settles the fawn-colored coat self-consciously.

She takes a deep breath and turns to the room, looking at the others, "No plan what-so-fragging-ever yet." She seems a bit put off by the lack of direction and, since nature abhors a vaccuum, she steps in. "Name's Esther Fader. I'm the knuckle-dragger." She looks anything but dim.

"What say we get started by you lot sharing everything you know about the two companies Takeda and Ikara. I don't have anything on them, though I do have this..."

//Incoming Data Transfer
//From: Fade
//
//
//Accept?

Those accepting the file will see the video of an Evel Knievel-style escape from a clinic rooftop on the outskirts of Tacoma.

[BishopMcQ]

The File
Enclosed is footage of a newsfeed from a gang-based attack on a clinic in the industrial sector between Tacoma and Downtown. Halloweeners attacked the clinic using explosives and incendiary devices, all the while screaming for drugs.

Someone has made several notes in the file, cross-referencing it with fragments of police reports in which on site security was executed with an almost military precision. Several guards suffered broken limbs from non-lethal rounds being fired in tight bursts.

The anonymous comments draw attention to what he feels is a glaring example of a cover-up. It appears that with a fifty foot start, the gangers were able to make a forty foot jump with a motorcycle. The biker ends up sacrificing the bike by jumping off of it to land safely onto a nearby freeway overpass. A flare of light from below indicates the bike exploded.

[Penta]

Penta skims through everything mentally, then nods at the file Esther shares.

"From what I know: Financially, Ikeda is...well, they're doomed, it's probably just a matter of time.

"The clip indicates a lucky rider, I think...But the attack's details make me wonder. I can't see a company in the kind of financial trouble Ikeda is in being able to afford assets capable of that kind of precision."

[Buddha72]

Looking over the file footage and noticing the same comments as the rest. "So we're looking at a staged hit to cover up whatever this teams of runners real target was. Do we have any idea what they were really after?" Sora opens a new file in her field of vision and begins to make notes of her thoughts and impressions at this point.

[Vegas]

A'ja watched the file footage a couple of times with all the cross-references in place along the way. She spoke softly while the vid feed looped in her field of vision.

"Ikeda might be doomed financially, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't have something valuable enough to use as a form of payment." She shrugged slightly and her eyes shifted focus for a moment before returning to look at the assembled group.

"They were working heavily on the Awakened Genome project, rumors flying about them going after some of Dunk's cash even. Both of them were working on two opposite spectrums of advancements. Ikeda going for the bioware and magical set while Takara more cyber and matrix oriented. It’s not really a secret that Takara’s looking to snap up anything and everything Ikeda’s selling off as of late, and they’re not being friendly about it either.”

[krayola red]

Juan watches the news clip with interest, pondering the possibility that magical support could be partially or entirely responsible for the apparently superhuman motorcycle leap. He might be able to uncover an answer if he were actually at the site where the jump took placed, but there's little he can do with AR footage.

"So, the question remains...what are we going to do?"

[Buddha72]

As she continues to review the files, Sora begins to speak, her voice carrying a slightly distant quality as she divides her attention between the meeting and scrolling text.

"I would suggest a two pronged approach, I was led to believe some among you can easily move amongst the high and mighty in the corp world while the more street elements of the team look into this Finn person. We need to verify what exactly the minor executive was referring to in the memo and we need to find out if this runner is out or still needed to be extracted. If he still needs to be sprung we'll need to do it."

She looks around the group seeing if she was on target with goals.

[krayola red]

Juan shrugs. "Sounds good t' me. It's to my understanding that Mr. Finn is a man who represents a considerable security problem...since dealing with such problems happens to be a specialty of mine, if no one else objects, I will place myself on the team that moves against him."

[HeySparky]

Esther nods, "That sounds like my area too."

[Vegas]

"I can manage a move against or among the corp execs. Wouldn't hurt to have a little backup however."

A'ja's green eyes moved over the cast and crew of this production and wasn't surprised as to how people were falling into line between the two objectives. She just wondered who else would hold their own in the social circles.

[Buddha72]

"Excellent. For now let's have Juan in charge of the team handling the Finn problem and A'ja will be heading up the team tackling the issue of getting us more information from the executive." Sora makes eye contact with each individual as she assigns the tasks in question, making sure it was ok with all assembled. "Since we're all professionals here, I will let each of you determine where your strength lies and decide which group to assist." Again a quick moment of eye contact with the remaining members.

[HeySparky]

Esther looks at Juan, "All right. Let's move to the other room and throw our brains at this." She looks at Ludmilla and Sora, "Holler if you have any insights. Or if you're sending anyone else over."

[krayola red]

Juan nods. "Aye, it would be prudent to begin with the utmost haste."

Once they've set up shop in the next room, he sits down cross-legged on the floor, leans against a closet, and gazes at Esther. "I believe that the first step should be to acquire information regarding our mark, particularly his present location. Since our employers have moved against him before, we may be able to requisition any previous intelligence they've gathered, though there's a very real chance that anything they have may be outdated. We can overlay that with any information we can extract from our own contacts and see if we can put a coherent picture together. What do you think, cherie?"

[Penta]

Penta quietly joins Juan.

(OOC: I am alive, folks. RL will not keep me down.)

[Buddha72]

Sora waits a moment to make sure everyone on the team has sorted themselves out before joining Juan's group. "If you'll excuse me for just a moment, I'll check with what conatcts I have and see if we can find more out about Finn" She steps a little out of the way as she drops into AR to begin the process of reaching out and calling in favors.

After entering several cyphers and passwords, she accesses her list of known and reliable contacts. She looks over the list and decides to leave Sosofu off the list for the moment. If they needed to they could seek him out if and when all the other leads ran dry.

<< I am looking to contact a runner working under the name of Finn. I need to arrange a meeting with him as soon as possible. Any information on this individual or his whereabouts would be greatly appreciated. >>

She sends the message out, leaves AR and rejoins the other runners.

[BishopMcQ]

Sora
Within seconds the first few replies trickle in, with more coming in over the course of several minutes.

Daisy Q lets you know that he doesn't move in any of the circles that she does. Zha Min Su has a similar response, though mentions that a woman called Temple has mentioned his name. She referred to him as a psychopathic killer who'd just as soon shoot a person as talk to them.

Jimmy remembers a guy who knew a guy, who may have sold some caseless APDS rounds to man calling himself Finn. That was about six months ago, he's a regular customer of another seller though.

You hit gold with The Suit who can put you in touch with the right people for a simple finder's fee. 100 :nuyen: or a favor for later, your choice.

After reading through the flurry of responses, you are able to pick back through your memory. Finn never crossed words with the Asian syndicates, at least not in a memorable enough way for people to talk about.

[Buddha72]

Sora quickly reads through the replies and looks to Juan. "We're in luck on of my contacts can put in touch with the right people, people I assume that can tell us more about this Finn character. Are we game?'