Southern Hospitality, Ya'll come back now ... Options

[Redjack]

<<@All [Book] Sounds like a plan. We could use a face... >>

[Redjack]

As the team loads up, Dalton puts the vehicle in gear and exits the pristine little community. On the way back to where this little run all started, they make a pit stop by Gadgets, Gadgets, Gadgets.

There, Dalton makes his way to the microdrone case. When the clerk comes over he motions to one of the fly-spies with several upgrades. "I'm thinking that one with the thermographic enhancements and an encryption program.. but I know I say a comparable model over at New Egg for 250 nuyen less.... Listen, I'm here now... What can you do for me on that price?"

[ludomastro]

Let me see what I can do. As the barely over teenage clerk turns back toward the office a withered little frenzied man comes out of the back of the shop. He has dark olive skin bordering on black and a look of terror on his face.

No, no, NO! THEY might be watching. Pay me the cost of the goods and get out out of my store.

The clerk smiles weakly and asks, Do you want paper of plastic with that?

[Redjack]

Dalton is taken off guard by the paranoid man coming out of the back. His first thoughts are to bitch-slap the psycho-boy, but what little discipline stuck keeps him in check.

"Yea, ok.. Whatever.." He collects his purchase and heads out of shop, back to the van and down the road.
--------
As they continue on the current leg of the trip, Book considers the various options available to them. We have to locate the ork girl. Don't care about the politics, nor the motives of Johnson... Just fulfilling the contract... But should I care? This is big time stuff....

[ludomastro]

The early traffic that gave way to gridlock has once again slackened as most have arrived at work for a the time being. Others are leaving and arriving in more or less predictable patterns. The effect is something like ants scurrying in and out of their hill. Rush hour representing after the hill is damaged in some way.

The group is able to negotiate back to the Krispe Kreme without incidence. The parking lot is surprisingly full for this time of day. There are a few cars from the Star in the lot as well.

[Redjack]

Once again, Dalton parks away from the Krispy Kreme. I didn't advertise before, not gonna start now. He chooses a location between the public terminal Jazz identified and the donut shop.
------
As the approach the parking lot, Book furls one eyebrow. "Is anyone else's paranoia acting up? Is it strange that there are so many cars here?"
------
Dalton nods, "Think its time to put this new drone to the test." He launches the drone and sends it out over the parking lot recording license plates and looking for things that appear out of place for the neighborhood like a concentration of out of state license plates, AR tags on the cars that flag them as 'out of place', security forces of any type, etc.
------
Book replies, "I will project and perform some non-invasive recon of the area." He looks around for comments, then leans back, projects and begins surveying the area looking for astral presences and security then probing to see if there are astral defenses around the Krispy Kreme.
------
As the fly-spy begins its recon, Dalton looks over at Jazz. "You wanna check out that public terminal?"

[ludomastro]

@ Dalton
There is a high cluster of sequential plates; however, only one car is out of state. There are three from out of county.

@ Book
There is a medium force ward over the back room where you had your meet earlier. Otherwise the area is clean except for the standard mish-mash of a background count that passes for normal in Atlanta.

[Redjack]

Dalton's interest perks up when he finds sequential license plates. He makes a first pass inspection to see if he can determine if they look real or official in some capacity.
-----
Book returns to his body and sits up. "Nothing out of the ordinary except for the warding on the back room. I'm going to recon the area.. Check for any perimeter security." With that, he leaves his body and begins to sweep a one block radius looking for sentries or more warded sites.

[ludomastro]

@ Dalton
The sequential numbers appear to belong to a group of Star vehicles. Interestingly, there are two unmarked cars among that group.

@ Book
There are a few low force wards in the area with a decent sized ward near the back of a street facing shop.

[Redjack]

Dalton reports his finding, "Well I'm seeing a number of Star vehicles, but this is a freaking donut shop. I'm not ready to call it a conspiracy yet... Except to inflate the sales for Krispy Kreme." The last part was added with a snicker.
---------
Book on the other hand returns to his body. There are several wards in the area, one of which I am taking into consideration. He pulls up the area overhead in the team net that Jazz established. "Dalton. I think you should send your fly-spy over here to check out this building in this room. I found a magical ward there." He marks the area where he found the larger ward facing the shop.
---------
Dalton replies, "Null sheen chummer" and he sends the fly-spy off to perform a recon of the area.

[Thanee]

Sunday, March 3rd, 2070; Mid-Morning; Outside Krispe Kreme, Atlanta, CAS

"Sure."

Jazz heads over to the terminal and takes a look at it before getting to work. She positions herself in a way, that the camera, if there seems to be one, does not take pictures of her. First she hacks into the terminal, then - if everything goes according to plan - she searches for whatever bits and pieces she could identify from the half erased email she found in Fulerton's mail folder, hoping to find out more about its content, maybe even a recording of who has sent it from here.

[ludomastro]

@ Dalton
The fly-spy flits hither and thither down the street in a decent imitation of a real fly. As it closes in on the area indicated by Book, you can see a sign reading, "Anna's Arcanum."

@ Jazz
The poor local network doesn't stand a chance. The reality filter kicks in and provides you with your favored image - nice and clean. There are logs of the last several conversations and emails from this terminal. You are able to quickly locate what you want. You find the message which in whole reads:

<I miss you. Want to see you again. My husband will be out on Wednesday. Come alone around 2200. My place.>

There is also a file with video of the sender but the quality is not so great. It will take some massaging to get it right.

[Thanee]

Sunday, March 3rd, 2070; Mid-Morning; Outside Krispe Kreme, Atlanta, CAS

< [Jazz] Ok, got some more data... message said: "I miss you. Want to see you again. My husband will be out on Wednesday. Come alone around 2200. My place." - will work on the image taken by the camera here, in order to get a better idea of the sender, but later. >

[Redjack]

Sunday, March 3rd, 2070; Mid-Morning; Across the street from Krispe Kreme, Atlanta, CAS

Book smiles, first at the sign from the video feed that the fly-spy provides then at the intel provided by Aeryn. "Finally! I think we are getting somewhere. We have an affair, though we don't know for sure who yet with. I'm not ready to jump to any conclusions yet that this will bust things open. I'd much rather catch him collecting money from Aztechnology." He rubs his hands together as he thinks, now a little excited. "Jazz. Earlier said there was a 'note for a meeting roughly every two weeks at Starbucks near his office'. Did you say when the next meeting is?"
---------
Dalton recalls the drone. Listening to the conversation.
---------
Book continues talking with Jazz. "I think we should stay around here until you get that image cleaned up, then we can track her down... If she's not our ork, then she's an additional lead...."

[Thanee]

Sunday, March 3rd, 2070; Mid-Morning; Outside Krispe Kreme, Atlanta, CAS

"Sorry, no idea about the biweekly meeting. Gave you all the info I found. There wasn't anything else."

"Okay. Working on it as we speak..."

Jazz then runs some of her programs over the image in order to hopefully get a better picture of who's depicted there.

[ludomastro]

Jazz is rewarded with a somewhat fuzzy but adequate picture of a svelte ork. Well, svelte being a relative term. She appears to be heading off to the building across the street.

[Redjack]

Dalton looks are the image of the ork woman... "Wow... For an ork... She's kinda hot.."
----
Book ignores their wheel-man, instead focusing on Jazz, "Great work with the picture. " He gives his teammate an uncharacteristic, brief smile before returning to his business like demeanor. "Could you cross extract the dates of last three meetings at the Starbucks near his office from the data you retrieved? "

[Redjack]

Sunday, March 3rd, 2070; Mid-Morning; Across the street from Krispe Kreme, Atlanta, CAS

Book frowns at the lack of dates on the Starbucks. Far less than optimal. How can we work around that? "Ok, here's my thought. I think we are up to three solid leads right now. Number one, our fine damsel of the orkish variety this Wednesday, 10pm. We just need to find her. Number two, these transactions at a Starbucks. Jazz, we are going to need your magic there. Can you get into their security system and run an agent or something to locate footage of the target. Hell we may not need to catch him in the future if you can get good footage in the past, though we will probably need to stage to get our own audio. Third, this upcoming fund raiser where the Smoking-Man thought Ares might make an appointment. We need a date on that fund raiser, a location and means for us to get inside. How does this sound?"

Dalton just nods and looks to Jazz and Dean.

[Thanee]

Sunday, March 3rd, 2070; Mid-Morning; Outside Krispe Kreme, Atlanta, CAS

"Hmm... not sure I really want to mess around with Ares security system, so for that appointment we will have to look somewhere else. Starbucks, however, should be less of a problem. Will see what I can do there. How should we go about with the mistress? The picture is well and good, but a name would be better. Maybe you can ask around or something? The pic won't be much use in a search, I'm afraid. Maybe we should find a new location, though, hanging around here with all the cops might not be the best idea..."

[Redjack]

Sunday, March 3rd, 2070; Mid-Morning; Outside Krispe Kreme, Atlanta, CAS

Dalton looks to the trio in the van, "Give me a few minutes." He then sits back in his seat and slips into full-VR and off into the matrix and zips across city at the speed of thought to EZSoft 4u, software whole seller. He makes a few selections and uploads the electronic payment.
Once he returns to his own com, he begins using his new edit program to clean up the video of the woman hoping to pick up more details about her.

[Redjack]

Sunday, March 3rd, 2070; Late-Morning; Outside Krispe Kreme, Atlanta, CAS

Dalton begins work on the video, moving the van down the street and around the corner after ten minutes to keep from drawing attention to themselves. He then sets in to the task of continuing to clear up the video to attempt to determine the woman's direction or perhaps of mode of travel.
--------
Book on the other hand is suitably bored about forty-five seconds after the van is moved. Looking to Dalton he says, "Wake me when you have that video cleared up more and a direction or vehicle."
Thinking a moment more about what might need to be done, he decides to summon a spirit of man before taking his nap. The spirit arrives taking the form in astral space of a large, middle aged man, beaten down by years of manual labor. It waits silently for its summoner's command. Thank you for coming. I will have a task for you shortly.
--------
An hour later, Dalton wakes up Dean and Book, "I was able to clean up the video even more, but we have a no go as far as mode of travel or even direction."
--------
Book looks at the picture; Studies it. He then shifts his perception to the astral and looks to the patiently waiting spirit. Thank you for your patience. I have one task to ask of you. He places the images of the woman in the video in his mind, very happy that Dalton was able to clean them up. Find this woman and tell me where she is so that I may go to her.
As the spirit begins circling out into astral space using its search powers, Book looks back to Dean, Dalton and Jazz' VR-induced-comatose body. "Shall we get lunch? I expect that the spirit will take some time to locate this woman. I expect she is in this area, though not necessarily close to this location. Being married, in a relationship with a politician and careful of her husbands movements I doubt we will locate her in a nightclub or bar... a country club perhaps... "

[ludomastro]

After about 35 minutes the spirit returns to Book. It again appears as a man accustomed to manual labor. With the expression of one who would rather not be talking to his supervisor the spirit says, Excuse me, boss. May I talk to you for a sec? I found the woman you asked me about.

[Redjack]

"Excellent!!" Book exclaims before turning to his team mates, "Be right back". He sits back in his seat and enters the astral.

He says, "Yes, please. Lead on." and follows the large spirit off and out toward the young ork woman.

[ludomastro]

The spirit kind of mopes toward the apartment building seen in the recording. Despite being in the astral, the spirit gives the distinct impression of walking. He leads Book to the top floor of the apartment building to a very nice apartment. The woman from the video is sitting in her kitchen aparently talking to thin air.

[Redjack]

Book turns to the spirit. "Thank you for your service. I release you". He takes several moments to study the location of the apartment inside the building then returns to the van. Once there he works with Dalton to mark the apartment on the GPS.

He then turns to Dean, "Ok, looks like you're up. Anything you need from us? You got audio/video recording gear?"