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

[Redjack]

Sunday, March 2nd, 2070; 18:57 EST; Krispy Kreme, Atlanta, CAS

I've forfeit at least two years off the end of my life. There's no mistaking it. Two solid years...
Book steps off the bike, slowly, deliberately placing each foot on the ground, insuring that the ground itself is solid and not some flightly, intangent piece of fluff. I should make the sign of the cross or kiss the ground or something symbolic of my thanks at having made it to the end of the gauntlet with my life and limb... He says not a word though.

Momentarily ignoring Jazz's comment, Book takes out his poncho and unrolls it. He puts it on and pulls the hood over his head. He summons the mana around his body and begins following Jazz, slowly changing as they approach the Krispe Kreme entrance.

By the time he reaches the door, the shade of his suit is darker and pinstriped, topped with a red power tie. His jacket no longer appearing like a duster, rather an Armani overcoat. His face clean shaven and his features now stronger, sharper jawline. The facial change is not dramitic, but enough that he will not be recognizable. He pulls his hood back and it disappears into the illusion. Jazz has seen this face before. It is a common one for Book. Well memorized and eay to maintain, no sense a Johnson seeing his real face unless need be.

He switches his gaze to that of the astral world around them and summons a watcher from the fabric of space. Patrol around this building. Warn me of spells or spirits entering this building after me.

As she reaches for the door handle, he says in a low voice, "No. No accident.. It just sent me to my next life..". Her snicker telling him she got it, regardless of whether it was genuine or faked for the social reasons. He knew her drones had already informed her of the change anyway.

As she stops to question the dwarf, Book calls forth a second watcher. Follow me and watch over me from astral space. Alert me of danger by whispering to me, but insure I hear you.

[ErrosCallidus]

Sunday- 2 March 2070; 1900 EST; Krispy Kreme, East Point, Atlanta

Nothing, just a fancy car from out of town, must be the employer... boring after all. After a quick glance at the empty RF Scanner, Carron slides on his concealed holster and drops the Predator into it. He steps out of the car and shrugs on his Camo (UCAS Pattern) Jacket. Slips two spare mags into the outside pockets of his jacket. Before he closes the car door he flips a blanket over the gear in the back seat. He locks the door and heads across the street.

Oddest doughnut shop I've seen... he thinks when he sees the interior with his Mk.I Eyeball.

As he gets into the back room he glances around at the 'runners already present appraising them. Damn, wish all my teammates were that good looking. Hope her capabilities match her looks. His gaze slides from the girl in leather over to the two suits in the room; Fraggin' poufs he thinks and dismisses them.

"I'll stand thanks" he says to the gesture to sit and moves into the corner opposite the door and waits, slowly scanning the room.

[2bit]

Sunday- 2 March 2070; 1900 EST; Krispy Kreme, East Point, Atlanta

Vick walks through the Krispy Kreme, snapping pictures of each person he comes in contact with using his cybereyes. Putting on his best poker face, Vick steps into the back room, nods to the seated man, and takes a seat directly across from him.
Four so far. . . looks to be a sizable team, and I don't know anybody yet. Not a good start.

[Cedric Rolfsson]

March 1, 2070 O-Dark-Thirty EST; CavalryArm Condos, Atlanta

Buzz. . . . .Buzz. . . . Buzz. . . . .

Dean lifts his head from his sweat damped pillow and stares with bleary alcohol fogged eyes at his commlink as it continued to vibrate spitefully at him. His head ached and his eyes refused to focus properly after yet another night of drowning out his current existence at the Cube with Digger. Not feeling up to an AR interaction he spoke out loud in a whiskey roughed voice.

"Commlink connect, voaux only." He paused for a second to let the connection hit.

"Ya?"

The voice that answered was that of Digger, only it was modulated and changed enough to suggest he was using some kind of program to prevent anyone from tracing his voice or using stress analysis.

"Get up chummer, I got you some real work!"

Dean sighed, and pulled himself out of bed, if his friend actually had real shadow work for him to do he had to get himself up and moving, he'd better be ready and professional when the time came.

"Okay guy, give me twenty to get moving and I'll comm you back for the info." He closed the connection without waiting for a reply, since if he gave Digger half a chance the fixer would bury him in data before Dean had a chance to wake up.

Time for a shower and some real coffee. Some real strong coffee.

[ludomastro]

Back Room, Krispe Kreme, East Point, Atlanta: Sunday 02-MAR-2070 - 1900

The smoking man looks at Jazz and says, "Normally sweetheart, its no carrying; however, for someone as cute at you, we'll make it no using."

The dwarf from behind the counter brings in a plate of doughnuts and some coffee. He sets them on the table and them looks at the smoking man and asks, "Will there be anything else Mr..."

Before he can finish the man's name, the smoking man smoothly cuts in, "No. That is enough for now. He then turns to those at the table and says, "We will get started here in a bit. There are several more coming and here in the South we don't get as uptight as those damn Yankees up north."

[Trigger]

Krispe Kreme, East Point, Atlanta: Sunday 02-MAR-2070 - 18:30

Belle had arrived almost a half hour early for the meet, first scoping out the area and then taking a seat inside the shop. She ordered a small cup of soykaf and a couple of donuts, eating through them slowly as she pretended to be browsing the matrix, controlling it with her AR gloves while actually scoping the joint and everyone in it out.

As it got closer to the time the others started to show, each of them in turn moving to the back room of the establishment. After watching them all enter the room Belle rose from her own seat and discarded the remnants of her donut into the trashcan and made her own way into the room, taking a seat at the table after nodding to each of the others.

[ErrosCallidus]

Back Room, Krispe Kreme, East Point, Atlanta: Sunday 02-MAR-2070 - 1900

Carron stiffens slightly as the suit mentions "damn yankees."

Easy, not good to piss off the boss before the job begins...

He relaxes, lets the comment pass and resumes watching the others silently.

[Redjack]

Sunday, March 2nd, 2070; 19:00 EST; Krispy Kreme-Back Room, Atlanta, CAS

The watcher on his shoulder as they proceed into the back room of little shop, Book keeps his sight in the astral assensing each of the individuals therein. Once completed with that he pulls even more mana to himself and silently, motionlessly weaves it around himself. No sense being caught unaware today.

He takes a seat next to Jazz and quietly awaits the briefing to begin.

[Cedric Rolfsson]

Sunday March 2, 2070: 19:00:15 - Krispe Kreme - Atlanta
PAN: Passive

A Krispe Kreme shop? Jesus, this place probably attracts more cops than a corpse attracts flies.

Dean made sure that his electronic glasses and respirator were securely in place before proceeding towards the door. He already had his agent program spoofing away at his electronic trail, just in case, and his AR gloves effectively prevented any fingerprints.

He surrepticiously felt at his neck, where a small tooth hung on a pure silver chain, the tooth carved with tiny Futhark runes symbolizing health and magic. On his left hand he wore what looked to be a simple wedding band in white gold but it too glowed with Power to those who could See. He activated his power focus, the ring boosting his own magical abilities enough to make them worthwhile, and then activated the medallion's spell sustaining powers, tracing discrete runes in the air and casting his spell.

[ludomastro]

Back Room, Krispe Kreme, East Point, Atlanta: Sunday 02-MAR-2070 - 1905

The smoking man smiles as everyone takes their final seats. "You all come recommended for your various skills. Some more highly than others. I have a proposition for you. I have an opponent who needs to be removed." He hesitates for a moment and grimaces. He waves his hands as if trying to clean something off them and continues, "No, not wetwork. That is a nasty business that I will not be involved with. I need a political assassination. I can not abide a certain Senatorial candidate. I am offering two thousand per person with half up front. Before we divulge details, I will need to know who is interested."

[Redjack]

Sunday, March 2nd, 2070; 19:05 EST; Krispy Kreme-Back Room, Atlanta, CAS

Eric takes a moment, looking around the room and taking a slow, deep breath. He looks back at Mr Johnson, maintaining good posture and looking eye to eye to play his role. "Senatorial candidate and you are offering two thousand per person?" He pauses for effect then continues, "I dare say that our expenses alone will run that high.... Whew... Perhaps I've just misunderstood the basic premise of what you are asking for. Is this a dirt finding mission or is there a specific time bound assignment?"

[ludomastro]

The smoking man looks at Eric for a moment and then says, "I suppose I had that comming. What I am proposing is a two part assignment. The first is dirt finding as you have said. The other part is indeed time dependent; however, the specifics of that will have to wait. And yes, there is more money for part two. That point will have to be negociated once I know if you are interested or not." He leans back in the chair, folds his hands together and bows his head slightly.

[Thanee]

Sunday, March 2nd, 2070; 19:07 EST; Krispy Kreme (Back Room), Atlanta, CAS

"Everyone in this room is interested, that's the reason we are sitting here after all," Jazz explains. "I at least havn't heard anything yet, that would negate that. Two kay doesn't get you very far, but you know that already. I'm sure we will be able to come to a mutual agreement, though."

[Redjack]

Sunday, March 2nd, 2070; 19:08 EST; Krispy Kreme-Back Room, Atlanta, CAS

Nodding to Jazz, Eric adds another bit, "I agree. My presence is indicative of interest, but I have great concern about our ability to complete task one, getting the dirt, in a suitable timeframe to you." Wth a small, momentary smile, "Getting dirt is a specialty of mine," Returning to a poker face, "but people tend to spend lots of money to keep their dirt secret and it usually takes more money than they spent to hide it to uncover that dirt..." another pause for effect, "and a senatorial candidate has a lot of money to spend hiding their dust as well as a lot of deadly people invested to keep that dirt hidden.... That equates to exponential risk..." Moving his left hand to his chin to rub it as if he has just had an epiphany, "and the value of the derailment of one's opposition in these things in the savings of advertising alone must be high six figures...." Lowering his hand and looking back to the Johnson, "This seems prime runner class work and the initial offer is street runner pay... unless I again misunderstand the role you are seeking us to play?"

[2bit]

Sunday, March 2nd, 2070; 19:08 EST; Krispy Kreme-Back Room, Atlanta, CAS

Vick twitches when Mr. Johnson explains the run.
Well that explains the deja vu. . .

Gesturing to Eric with a nod of the head, Vick enters the conversation, saying, "The man's right; two will get you an in-and-out grab-slash-planting of previously identified or provided material. You want us to dig up his skeletons for you, that'll cost you extra. You want us to be quiet about it, well that's extra too. If you need dirt fabricated, that's also extra. And if you want him coerced into a 'dirty' situation, well, that's an extra zero. So, if you could be a bit more specific, we'd appreciate it."

[Shadow]

Sounds like it is within my abilities. Sundown munches another bight ouf the soft creamy donut. The greatness that is Krispe Kreme fills his mouth with a little bit of heaven.

[ludomastro]

The smoking man's head snaps back and he lets out a laugh that sounds as if he were completely unhinged. "Damn, boys that was intertaining ... and ladies." He puts out his cigar, stands up, closes the door and returns to his seat. "I was hoping that the fixers that I contacted hadn't sent me a bunch of street thugs and I see that they haven't. Alright, let's get back to business. I would like any and all dirt dug up in the next ten days. Also I want to plant some evidence of his ... involvement, with the Azzies that can come to light later. I'm paying two grand each for the run to plant evidence with a bonus if everything is completely quiet. The dirt digging pays ten with half up front. Certain expenses will be payed by anonymous donors via credstick, provided, of course, that you keep me in the loop. Any questions?"

[Thanee]

Sunday, March 2nd, 2070; 19:10 EST; Krispy Kreme (Back Room), Atlanta, CAS

"Now we are getting somewhere," Jazz then says. "Do you have all the data you already have collected about the candidate available? Saves time, if we do not have to put everything together again."

[Redjack]

Sunday, March 2nd, 2070; 19:11 EST; Krispy Kreme-Back Room, Atlanta, CAS

Book nods in agreement and relaxes his face to signal an end to negotiations and moving on to business, "Any information on his movements over the next ten days, family, friends, rumors that could be substanciated... any and all would greatly increase our chances of success..". He smiles a little as he ends and adds a little lift in his voice, "and success for us is success for you."

As an afterthought he adds, "An of course we need your preferred method of communication.." Looking at the man, Book takes this moment to study his aura to enable him to send a watcher on a messenger task in the future...

[Cedric Rolfsson]

Sunday March 2, 2070 19:11 EST Krispy Kreme - Back Room - Atlanta

Dean sat quiet while the others spoke, having slipped in and found a seat at the back of the room as unobtrussively as possible.

The run seemed pretty reasonable, just planting the evidence and digging dirt, now that the price was getting closer to right. He was worried about having cattle call of runners show up and do the job but everyone seemed competent enough.

"With those numbers, I'm interested."

He actually liked the idea of playing politics, even if they weren't able to earn that bonus, there was likely to be all sorts of important people rubbing shoulders with a senatorial politico and most would be willing and able to make a reasonable blackmail payment. Besides, most of them deserved all the drek that could be heaped upon them.

[ludomastro]

The cigar smoking man says, "Ok, on the issue of communication, use this comm-code." He pulls out a simple model and transmits the code to everyone in the room with a comm on active or passive mode. "A few of you don't have comms or are a bit shy... Anyway, I suppose that you can share later. Now, Miss, I don't have anything on him at the moment as he is very careful to cover his tracks. I'll tell you that I am convinced that he is in with the Azzies and I'll get that out if I have to plant it myself. Other than that, lets see... he plays up the need to keep metas in their place, whatever that means, and I've heard rumors that he pays a visit to a local ork girl - if you know what I mean - about once a week. Don't have the exact address but the rumor says its here in East Point somewhere. Two, he is taking kickbacks from Ares who isn't in very good with the CAS government. Other next week he will be politicing here in East Point for the Southern Conservative nomination. I figure he's a shoe-in and so does everyone else as no one is truly opposing him. Some nut-job from the coast has mounted a campaign so the primary is still needed. Ok, last thing, I hear there is a fund raising dinner in a week at his headquaters in downtown. I figure that you can catch Ares info there. Ok, that's what I got."

[Thanee]

Sunday, March 2nd, 2070; 19:15 EST; Krispy Kreme (Back Room), Atlanta, CAS

"Hey, I wasn't asking you to do our job. I just meant regular data, like work schedules, representatives, secretaries, names, pictures, addresses, etc. Anything you got we do not have to collect ourselves," Jazz explains, then goes on. "So he likes to beat up metas? Geez. Can't we - for once - get someone normal to apply for senatorship? I don't even dare to think about how fragged up you need to be to get elected as president. Anyways, what you just listed sounds good. There seem to be plenty angles from which we could go about this. There must be something to find."

[Redjack]

Sunday, March 2nd, 2070; 19:16 EST; Krispy Kreme (Back Room), Atlanta, CAS

Eric switches his PAN to passive in order to receive the com code and then back to hidden. His passive mode is locked down pretty tight and his real SIN isn't loaded so he feels pretty safe, besides few can outwiz Jazz in the Matrix. Satisfied that Cigar Smoking Man believes this to be the truth, he listens to Jazz as well before replying.

Happy that his magically altered appearance is hiding his elation at the terms, Eric restates his understanding of the assignment to insure the entire team is clear, "That's six K upfront, another K when the dirt is planted, another 5K if we uncover any dirt in under ten days and a bonus if its all done quiet. As I understand it, while we dig for dirt the connection to the Azzies is the info to be planted... unless of course we can simply substantiate that connection and provide proof to you. I assume that if we can substantiate the connection to the Azzies, there is no need to plant a fake connection and we will collect the 1K for planting by default. Did I get it all straight?"

[ludomastro]

"No ma'am, I don't think that you understood me correctly. He doesn't hit this young lady he ... enjoys her company. I'm willing to bet that his wife knows and doesn't care as long as she is able to ride the fame by extension. However, if the Southern Conservatives were to get that information then things wouldn't go so well for him. Now, general information on this guy is available all over the matrix. When it comes to the information that you are seeking ... I can give you what I have." He transmits a file to those with open comms.

File Information:

[ Spoiler ]

<<<Photo: Terry Fulerton>>>
Name: Terrance (Terry) P. Fulerton
Age: 53
Race: Human
Address: Currently living in his downtown office.
Schedule: Almost always on the campaign trail

<<<Photo: Susana Smith>>>
Name: Susana Smith
Age: 35 to 40
Race: Human
Position: PR/Campaign Manager
Address: 318 North Circle Way
Schedule: Almost always with Terry

<<<Photo: John Smith>>>
Name: John H. Smith
Age: 42
Race: Human
Position: Driver/Security
Address: 318 North Circle Way
Schedule: Almost always with Terry

<<<Photo: Bob Phillips>>>
Name: Robert (Bob) A. Phillips
Age: ?
Race: Human
Position: Secretary
Address: Unknown
Schedule: Almost always with Terry

<<<Photo: Martha>>>
Name: Martha ?
Age: ?
Race: Human
Position: Campaign Volunteer
Address: Unknown
Schedule: Downtown Headquaters from 0800 to 1730

Turning to Eric he says, "Yup, you got it. On all acounts I might add." Looking at the group he asks, "So, do we have a deal?"

[Shadow]

Wow, a canidate whos a perv, and doesn't believe what he says... how original. Yeah I'm in. My only question is this, and for the record I don't really care what the answer is. If we eliminate this guy, who takes his place?