Blood of the People, - You Wouldn't Understand Options

[Redjack]

Nix grabs the nearest handful of webbing to keep upright and holds on as they rocket away.

[fistandantilus4....]

Carla nods an affirmative to Caliph , strapping herself into her seat and quickly jacking in herself, linking up with the Banshee's systems. The Sky People know their jobs well, everyone fallign into well practiced rolls as they high tail it out of the city.

Caliph and Nix both have subscription AROs popping up on their screens in moments.

[Redjack]

Nix subscribes into the aircraft net as he keeps his guard up. As the craft pulls away, he tries to ascertain if they are headed for the client's compound at the end of the flight.

[fistandantilus4....]

The route currently has them heading back out into the desert, well away from the cities, closer to the Sky People's compound.

[rob]

Queue an encrypted call through the vehicle's comms system. <<@Dances-On-Clouds (Caliph): Airborne, with your passengers. Give us a location where we can meet you with your security forces. >>

[fistandantilus4....]

The reply comes quickly. Give me a moment to confer. I'll let you know the instant I do.

After a couple of minutes, a message is shot back Caliph's way with coordinates for the corporate HQ, marking the helipad on an AR satelite shot.

[Redjack]

While he awaits the return call from Dances, Nix cross references the other freed children to contact information and tallies up the rewards for their returns. He then reaches out to their new fixer. Time to earn some points.

<<@Virginia [Nix] We have Jonus and are en route to Dances-On-Clouds. Also, we have rescued five additional children. [- List Attached -] We need to arrange secure delivery transportation, discreet contact with the families in question and laundering of rewards. The children will still be in jeopardy; The kidnappers had nefarious ends in mind.>>

<<@Caliph [Nix] As soon as this is hooked up, I got another contact to leak some details to. I also have a guy tied up and tranq'ed back at my safe house. We'll need to deal with him quickly before he goes into the wind. Question is whether or not Dances-On-Clouds will want to pay for some additional disruption. I'm not too interested in tangling with the master-minds on this deal though. Their mojo is considerably above mine...>>

[fistandantilus4....]

<<<Nix[Virginia] I can take care of that. Give me one hour to make arrangements. I will organize your Contact Points for a link up with your Acquired Goods, and handle the laundering of your Earned Credit. The cost to you will be 6%, off the top. I believe you will find my rates more than generous. Are we agreed?

[Redjack]

Nix checked the reply from Virginia. They could have cut her out of the loop and made a few extra nuyen, but his goal was two fold: First to take advantage of her connections and local network and second, to buy a little goodwill from the fixer. That goodwill should go kilometers towards their reps. There was one thing left before accepting the deal though:

<<@Caliph [Nix] I think 6% is fair, what's your take?>>

[rob]

To Nix - <<@Nix (Caliph) - Don't know. Your call. We'll get to the future once we land. I'll work on getting us there.>>

Switch onto the internal net and forward the sattelite shot and the coordinates to the vehicle crew. <<Drop off spot coordinates attached. I can give them your ID code for fire clearance. You got anything you want from the ground crew? Also, yall got any earplugs for the kids?>>

Call my mapsoft up while we're running, and track the flight path. Once I'm sure we've moved into route to the drop-off, hit a message to the boss: <<@Dances On Clouds (Caliph) - Sir: enroute. Connect me with the leader of the reception party. We'll need a well-warded room where we can store the other guests and brief you on possible future threats. If possible, please bring a (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) 12,000 certified credstick from the payment so we can tip our cabbie.>>

[Redjack]

He considered haggling her down, but instead elected to give her the full 6%.
<<@Virgina [Nix] We are a go. We need to move fast and be wary of reprisals and opposition.>>

[fistandantilus4....]

Caliph gets his call back from the pilot <<<<<One tick there son, the deal was to do a blow through pick up, in and out. These coordinates are in Salt Lake. Hoppin' into town and jumping back out is one thing. But the Mormons take their security seriously, especially in the DT Corporate zone. No one said anything about dropping you there.>>>>>

The reply from Dances comes next. <<<<@Caliph[Dances] Bring me my son and I will have your full pay waiting.

[rob]

To the pilot: <<Wait one. Got a vehicle ID I can send their air traffic control?>>

<<@Dances (Caliph) - Need airspace clearance into Salt Lake for this vehicle. Approach vector from SSE, to your location.>>

[fistandantilus4....]

<<<< Chummer, maybe you missed the part where we're smugglers. Feeding our Ident to Air Traff and Salt Lake's air guard isn't really a great idea with the long term goal of staying alive and operating in the area. You scan?>>>>

[ Spoiler ]

You can try for Leadership(Persuasion) or perhaps Negotiation if you want to try to talk him into it

Nix - Perception test

[rob]

<<@Dances (Caliph) Can your dudes swing a favor with the air traffic control?>>


<<Got spoofs? Dunk a cheap one. We're forwarding it through some dudes with wasta, and they won't need too many questions...>>

[ Spoiler ]

Any bonuses?[/color]

[fistandantilus4....]

<<<<@Caliph[Dances] I can try. What is the favor?>>>


From the cockpit: <<<<You're asking a lot there chummer.>>>>

[ Spoiler ]

I was figuring -1 for dangreous, +1 becasue they trust you more or less. Apply any street cred or financial compensation - +1/5K

It's dangerous to them because they've already got people looking for them for blowing right into town. They kept it as quiet as they coul, but something that blatant/bold is going to get a response. jumping up to Salt Lake right after could cause all sorts of issues, including tensions between the PCC and the Church that they wouldn't want to get into the middle of. There's politics involved, ya' see? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Redjack]

Perception Test: [3,2,1,6,3,6,3,5] = 3 Hits

[fistandantilus4....]

While finishing up a call, Nix notices his AR screen rezzing slightly, the system running a bit slower.

[Redjack]

Nix checks the new agent that Spider had installed on his com earlier, instructing the agent to inspect the system for intrusions.

[fistandantilus4....]

The agent goes on the move immediately, going into active alert. Even as it begins it's hunt, the screen flickers again , rezzing hard.

[Redjack]

There are few things that Nix knows. The first is that he hates technology. The second is that he hates technology. The third is that Spider always told him, If the com is compromised: Power off. If there's a hacker in there at that moment, he won't be happy. With that Nix presses that power button. While doing so he pull outs his com and gestures to Caliph, pointing to the com and then drawing a line across his throat.

There is always the chance that the hardware was just giving out, but those things don't just fizzing out. The only change had been subscribing to the evac crew's Net. He had five possible scenarios going through his head: Faulty hardware, opposition hacker, sold out by the evac crew or Dance's corp security is trying to make points and jumping the gun.

None of them made him feel comfortable.

[rob]

Abort the next message I was preparing. Pop immediately to the headset.

"Yo, we're dropping comms. Might be a hacker looking into one of our commlinks. Abort going to Salt Lake. Yall know Jek, right?"

... Don't know if this crew knows that motor guy, but I wouldn't go home straight up if I were them. Maybe Jek's got my car rolling.

Crouch a bit and ease the big rifle into my shoulder. Comfy position, but I want to be able to turn around in case there's trouble.

[fistandantilus4....]

'Course we know Jek. He's our electrician. Got a e-sniper huh? Kill your 'link if you haven't already, we'll sweep our system. Didn't know your crew was gonna be coming with so much baggage chummer.

[rob]

<<Word. Links dead. We got three options - we can call our patron and have us meet him somewhere, you can drop us at these coordinates (attachment), or if Jek has my truck working you can drop us with thim and we'll drive out from there. As for the baggage, yeah. e-snipers are better than the alternative.>>

- The attachment is dances house. If they go for that one, I'll review my mapsoft and give them the coordinates of a PZ sized spot on one of the covered and concealed approaches to his house that I ID'd the other day.

Swear violently too myself at the comm hurdle. I've been telling Dances to fucking move to a neutral spot for a half hour, and he gives us his fucking office address. If I could just get him on the fucking phone he should be able to get this beast airspace clearance...

[Redjack]

Now is one of those times that Nix wished he had a throw away com. Add that to the list for the next run.

His spirit still augmenting the spirit of the smugglers, Nix is fairly confident about the astral. In order to be more confident, he calls forth a watcher. Alert me if we are being followed.

Buy hits for 1 hour and drain.

Looking to Caliph, he disagrees with a change in plans. "I still say straight to Dances is the best option. He knows we're coming. His security forces know we're coming. Virginia knows we're coming. If all hell breaks loose, we will be in better shape than getting caught in the desert without back up." He looks to his sole remaining partner for his thoughts on staying the course.