Witch Hunt: IC, The power of Magic corrupts completely. Options

[imperialus]

"well it looks like you folks had more luck than me. I couldn't find too much more than we already knew. As for an actual plan, High Rise do you think you could piggy back off my comlink? That'll let you and Null stay patched into the meet. I think that we should just play the meeting by ear and see where the client wants us to go from there. We'll keep in touch with text messages though.

[Cakeman]

"Sounds good to me, and we still have time to finish breakfast in style. Did you guys see the game between Homicidal Hedgehogs and Puyalup's Heroes last night? There was this absolutely brilliant takedown halfway through..."

Even though he's still damp Orion feels at home, and manages to finish breakfast in spite of the kitchen staff's efforts. He doesn't touch the soykaf though - no sense in pushing his luck this early in the morning.

[imperialus]

Monday, March 10, 06:40. Soy n' Go, California Ave., West Seattle.

"I missed everything but the highlights on the news that night. Feel bad for... What's his name... number 32. The big troll that took the slug to the head in the 3rd quarter. I heard he's still in intensive care."

As the small talk begins to die down Malleus checks the time display in his ARO.

"Well gentlemen it looks like it's probably about time for Orion and I to head out for the ball. Null why don't you head down to the parkade and wait for us while High Rise park about a half block away or so and keep your drones ready to roll.

Unless anyone else has anything to add Malleus pays his bill and gestures to Orion to follow him. They take his car for the short ride to Emergent Cryonics and park in the parkade near the exit.

[Glyph]

Null's attempts to participate in the conversation are slightly awkward. From his blank look, you guess he missed the game, although after (presumably) doing a quick search on his commlink, he manages to interject a few statistics from the game.

After Malleus and Orion finish their more circuitous approach to the parkade, they find Null waiting for them, idly leaning against his nondescript leased vehicle. His nonchalant pose can't quite hide his slight twitchiness of nervous energy.

[yoippari]

Judging by the faces around the table High Rise is glad he ate at home. Diner food has never been to his liking anyway.

(to Malleus)"Ya, sure. But as I said before I might need to be in the building if they have wireless blocking wall paper." He logs onto Maleus' commlink and sends a quick IM. <You read me?>

(After they leave) High Rise does a quick once over of the drones to make sure they are fueled/charged. He also has to move a few things around incase he needs to carry passengers later on.

[Cakeman]

After the short ride to the parkade they meet up with Null and Orion hands him his holster and light pistol.

"I guess you have your own arsenal, but can you hold on to this one for me? If the local security decides to check us I can't afford to stain my SIN, I don't have a permit for this... ought to get one, but never got around to it. If it's no problem for you that is."

Orion straightens up from his normal shambling gait and actually looks like corp material. He checks the connection between his jack and his com, and makes sure the groups comcodes are prioritized and that communication runs smoothly. Satisfied, he smiles at everyone.

"Okay, ready to go."

[imperialus]

Malleus leaves all his weapons in the jackrabbit but he does take one of the mage masks and put it in his briefcase. He walks past Null as if he doesn't recognize him and makes his way to the elevator beside Orion.

When he recives High Rises' message he responds back <<Loud and clear.>>

[2bit]

WITCH HUNT

Chapter 2: Overseeing and Oversight

Monday, March 10, 07:00 The Horizon Building, West Seattle.

Somewhere, away from the Cascades, the sun has risen. But here in the Emerald City, there is a gray blanket that refuses to let go of the seaport sprawl. This morning you get a double helping. West Seattle, down by the Sound, is entrenched in fog, and the air sits damply at 3 degrees.

The Horizon Building is a solid pillar of of the status quo. The walls, once you're close enough to see, are a russet granite, veined with black, polished to a mirror finish, and coated in a fine layer of dew. Darkened, mirror-finish floor-to-ceiling windows line the top six of the building's seven levels.

Malleus and Orion:
The lobby area, walled by glass, is obscured by condensation. It must have a very nice view of the fountain in the pond when the weather's not so miserable. The lobby interior is semicircular, and two levels high. The floor motif is a mosaic of the top half of a great star, like the sun breaching the horizon. The points radiate outward from the main entrance doors. Two sets of seating areas with potted exotic plants are in the middle of the lobby area. In the middle of the circumference of this semicircle is the guard station and reception desk just to the right of an RFID-badge activated turnstyle providing access to the building's elevator bank and first-floor offices. Farther to the right of the reception desk is a pair of glass doors. Inside it you can see another reception desk, unmanned, with a large "Emergent Cryonics" corporate logo above it, changing color hypnotically.
There are three sets of cameras visibly covering the lobby area. Up above, in the area of the second floor open to the lobby, you can see a promenade type of area.

[2bit]

Null: The parkade is cold and empty. A handful of cars are here, early working execs and building staff, but most everyone has yet to show. Malleus and Orion head to the lobby, leaving you alone with your thoughts and nothing really to do.

[imperialus]

Malleus confidently crosses the lobby floor towards the security desk. He stops in front of the security guard and says

"Good morning. We are consultants hired to speak with Jessie Reynolds, Engineering Development Manager. I believe we are expected.

Malleus carefully controlls his tone of voice to suggest that he is very busy and has much better things to do than sit around yacking with some security guard but he keeps his tone from becoming condescending or rude.

[yoippari]

High Rise sits in his van with the drones and software getting a proverbial itchy trigger finger. Using his subscription to Malleus' commlink he scans the area around Malleus for a network, hoping the lobby isn't wireless blocked.

[2bit]

High Rise:

The lobby is not wireless blocked. From your access to Malleus's commlink, right away you detect an ARO in the lobby named, aptly enough, "Horizon Lobby". Its Signal doesn't appear to be strong enough to reach you out at the van. The front desk guard's commlink, however, is in active mode. His name is Sid Geiger, and he'd like to let you know that "Safety is on Everyone's Action List at the Horizon Building". You get Sid's commcode. Since he's not behind the wireless blocking area, you'll be able to hack his commlink through the matrix if you so desire.

You know there must be other ways into the building, given enough time to find the hidden nodes.

[Cakeman]

Nice place... well corp money can buy a lot of things. Whoa, a guard! Now I'd better look as though I belong, we do have a meeting scheduled after all. Malleus looks chill. I'll just follow his lead. Hello there... Sid? Well well, I think someone overdid their cologne this morning.

Orion takes the lobby in with all it's ARO signs and information. The place is pretty clean after all, there's no spam attacking them when in public mode. The weather outside looks fine now and there's even a map accessible for visitors. Orion resists the temptation to look it over at once and follows Malleus to Sid's desk and produces a sincere smile.

[Glyph]

Null blinks slowly as Orion and Malleus leave the parking garage and head towards the lobby. He holds the gun and holster that Orion left with him as if he is not quite sure what to do with them. Finally, he decides to put them in the glove compartment of his leased car for now.

He walks through the parking garage, trying to get a good feel for it - a tactical map is one thing, but checking out potential ambush sites in person is much better. And if anyone asks him what he is doing here, he can answer that he is one of the consultants hired by Mr. Reynolds. But he has found that if he makes no effort at skulking, but looks as if he has every right to be where he is, people tend to ask less questions.

He does anxiously check in with High Rise over his commlink, asking to be updated if anything significant develops. Other than that, he settles back to wait. It's not as unpleasant for him as it would be for others. He can sit in his car when he needs to sit down, and his commlink keeps him connected to chatrooms, data havens, rumormills, and the rest of the teeming online community. He doesn't mind the physical solitude - truth be told, it's what he's used to.

[yoippari]

High Rise knows Malleus is going to disappear pretty soon so he starts scanning larger scale to look for either the horizon building's network or... He has to check his notes to remember the name of the company. Emergent Cryonics. Who comes up with these names? What do they even do? He also does a matrix search for the company and checks out the lobby's page via the guard's commlink.

While at their matrix site he tracks his connection to their site. Just need to know where you are...

[2bit]

[Cakeman]

Ohh, nice suit... and legs! and...

Luckily, Orion manages to conceal his reactions (or so he thinks) in time. He smiles at miss Yarr and when she chooses to greet Malleus first, Orion waits before nodding to her and saying "Good morning miss Yarr" without interrupting her timing and letting her do her thing. He walks behind her and does indeed admire the view, but restrains himself from taking some photos with his comlink.

Now I'm awake atleast.

Instead he casually (just to have something to do) downloads and checks her business card while following her and Malleus.

[2bit]

Behind the glass double doors is a waiting area with a hallway leading beyond it. A sign posted there identifies it as the HR offices.
Sasha walks behind the empty reception desk and holds an ID badge to a sensor at the computer. It rings softly back at her and she begins typing while talking to you. "I'm sorry, I didn't stop for proper introductions. I just realized we don't have your names in our contractor database. Let's start over." She smiles. "My name's Sasha." She holds out her hand to shake.

[2bit]

Null: You have a walk around the parkade. The open-air stairwells have blind corners that would make great ambush sites, especially if any of the lights were disabled. Any of the large concrete pillars will do to hide behind, and once this place is full of cars there will be plenty of places to hide. It's also worth noting that like most parkades, pedestrians and vehicles have to share the roadway.

[ Spoiler ]

While walking around, you spot an inconspicuous video sensor in a corner of the 2nd floor. It's no doubt spotted you too. In fact, you've probably already been spotted by others along the way.

[imperialus]

Malleus nods
"My appologies, My name is Mr. Dawson*, Ryan Dawson. Senior consultant with Oracle Consulting, this is the first time your company has felt it nessesary to hire us. Oracle Consulting is a company that helps corperations attempting to comply with the Licenced Mages Act. I'd be happy to give you our public relations number if you have any further questions but I'm surprised that Mr. Reynolds didn't tell you to expect us."

What kind of impression does Malleus get from her. Is she just filling out routine paper work or is she actually suspicious.

*See ooc

[Cakeman]

Orion takes Sasha's outstreched hand and gives it a firm shake while giving her a warm smile.
"Harry Smith, pleased to meet you Sasha. Don't worry about formalities and first impressions, we're just here to see Mr. Reynolds. Are you on his staff?"

[2bit]

Malleus:

[ Spoiler ]

Judge Intent (INT + CHA) vs (WILL + CHA)
1d6=3, 1d6=2, 1d6=4, 1d6=3, 1d6=2, 1d6=6, 1d6=6, 1d6=3, 1d6=3, 1d6=5, 1d6=1, 1d6=2, 1d6=4, 1d6=6 4 hits vs. ?? hits.

She seems earnest, but a bit guarded.

Malleus: "Oh he did, yes; he just didn't say who to expect!" She chuckles and smiles. "It's nice to meet you. I think we have your company's contact commcodes on file already but I can take that number just to be sure."

edit - interjecting pleasantries with Orion:
Orion:Sasha shakes your hand. "Good to meet you, Harry. No, Mr. Reynolds is a part of our development team with the other brilliant engineers working here. I'm a part of the HR department." She smiles. "Advanced math was never really my thing, but I have plenty of administrative talent!" She laughs pleasantly. "We all do our parts, of course."

** after exchanging pleasantries with Orion **

"I'm going to set you up with ID badges so you can move about the office, work at a terminal, and get into all the places you need to, ok?" She looks at her screen, and her eyebrows twitch in a small gesture of surprise. "OK. For your clearance level, we'll need your SIN of course, but also a quick sample of voiceprint and thumbprint."

** Unless you interject or are interrupted: **

A prompt appears in AR for you to connect to provide your SIN. Sasha reaches under the table and gets a biometrics device, placing it in front of you. It has a wide array of functions, but you will just be using the print and voice readers.

[imperialus]

Malleus sends his SIN over the link and places his palm over the handprint reader.

Hopefully the SIN holds up. It should if they're just comparing voice and fingerprints though

[Cakeman]

It feels a bit wierd to be using Harry again, but atleast it is rooted deep enough that it's almost natural.

I wonder how mom is doing... and the rest of them. Maybe I'll send them a mail after work is done.

With a mental command he sends his real SIN to Sasha and confidently places his hand on the reader. His SIN is still unsullied after all.

The next time we do a job for someone like this, they had better appreciate we'd like some privacy! It's rude having us checked up like this. Before we leave, Reynolds had better wipe these records of us being here clean.

[yoippari]

High Rise doesn't care about the system the site is on, just the transmiter that links the outside world to the inside, hopefully that isn't very guarded. I should've been doing this last night, but what did I do? I updated Alfred's word defenitions.

For now ignoring the lobby node to avoid drawing the attention of the security guard he starts probing Emergent's transmiter for open traffic ports to exploit.