[X] My Assistant

[zed]

Crowley nods at Vamp, "I'll join you especially if Sammy things it might be off." He nods at Scorch and reemphasizes the question "Seperate or together?"

[Trigger]

"Well, that all depends on whether or not I can get a vehicle for all of us before the meet, which I think I should be able to do. How about we all meet here again tomorrow night, around 8, and we go from here, together if we can, separate if we must." Vamp sighs at the idea of having to maybe carry someone of the back of his bike, or of getting his bike into a dangerous situation. I just got that paint job done...

[BlackHat]

Scorch gets up off of the couch, tucking his chip back into his pocket. "Sounds good. I'll see you guys tomorrow. If you need me before then, try this commcode." He slowly makes his way towards the door, not entirely comfortable with being the first to leave, but he was the first to arrive, so it seemed somehow fitting. It also helped calm him down to see the others starting to move and gather their things. He opened the door, pausing to fire a private message towards Thomas's commlink, before he left. <If you're jonsing, give me a buzz. Kinda busy tonight, but we could score something tomorrow. My treat.>

September 14th 2072
Terminal, Manhattan
9:30PM

Scorch's cab got him home relatively quickly, and he had just settled into his ergonomic chair to get some late-night virtual reality in when he got an IM from Deep Fried indicating that he was approaching his place, and would prefer not to meet the neighbors. Scorch, amused, signaled his security system to stand-down, and open the doors for his friend, while he disengaged himself from the Matrix - running a hand through his hair as mind reeled at the rapid deceleration. Deep Fried brought food, as usual, and Scorch appreciated it - he didn't realize until then that he never grabbed dinner with his new teammates. Scorch showed Deep Fried around, letting him drool over Scorch's newest tech-toys, and Deep Fried produced an expensive-looking heavy-duty trode-band, and a slightly more worn looking simdeck. It was Scorch's turn to drool, as he looked over the new simsense accessories, and he produced a standard credstick. Deep Fried put the stick away, not wanting to appear distrusting, but Scorch was certain the old bastard was scanning the balance in AR as they made small-talk about some up-coming black-market sim-sense gossip. Conversation eventually came back around to the sim-rig, and the hot-sim mods, and Deep-Fried seemed to be angling to find out if Scorch was planning a return to the scene. Scorch could almost see the hope dripping from Deep-Fried's sagging face.

"Nothing like that," Scorch assured him casually. Deep-Fried didn't put much effort into hiding his disappointment. "Trust me, that wouldn't be good for either of us - but..." Scorch hesitated, looking at his new HSR and playback unit. He understood that he had only paid street-index, and that Deep-Fried had gone out of his way to deliver quickly, in person, and to throw in dinner. He didn't think, for a moment, that all of this was some sort of coincidence.

"...You did say you could deal in trade.... Deep-Fried finished his thought for him, grinning.

"... but... " Scorch continued, cutting off Deep-Fried and coming up with something new to say. "...man... everyone thinks they can handle it... and... you know enough to know what you're getting yourself into. I trust you're smart enough not to hit this, yourself?" Scorch accessed his simsynth and gathered up a big clump of simsense tracks - a little something pornographic he has been working on for a few days. "If you want something for your collection, fine - but if you use this... your life ends... whether it kills you, or not." Scorch looked meaningfully at Deep-Fried, knowing that if he was planning to take the hit, himself, no amount of reason would dissuade him, and that if he didn't, he was wasting his breath telling him something he already knew. The simsense images flickered above his hand, in AR, for a moment - flashes of nude humanity at its most carnal - then the images collapsed upon themselves into a small spark of light which hovered in the palm of his hand. Deep-fried watched, intently, from his own AR vantage-point, nodding emptily at Scorch's comments, and barely concealing his fascination. "I call this pick, 'en-em'." The speck of light darkened, and the ARO took the form of a small pill, with a tiny inscription circling the line where the two halves met. "Never, ever, access this file without this passcode." Deep-fried looked up, inquisitively, and Scorch continued. "Use the passcode, and you can move the file around, delete it, whatever. Don't, and it'll push its payload. What happens next depends on your bee-see-eye." Scorch offered the NM-PIC to Deep-Fried, who accepted it, hesitantly, entering the passcode in order to transfer it, safely, to his commlink.

"Like...how?"

"Like, nothing - because you're not stupid enough to hit en-em while riding hot. Even if you're see-ess, your vee-tee-ay will be toast. You'll sleep off the high, but your wires stay crossed." Scorch stood up. "And... nymphomania wouldn't be a good look on you...." Scorch smirked, and the two chatted a little more amiably after the final transaction had taken place. Deep-Fried was clearly tempted to taste the forbidden fruit he had been given, but Scorch was confident in the old decker's strength of will - or, failing that, his overriding desire to have a unique piece for his simsense-collection. If he took the hit, he'd have nothing to show for it. A few minutes later, Scorch had seen Deep-Fried safely back into his car, and he returned to his chair, already tired, but knowing he had a long night of virtual reality ahead of him.

[BlackHat]

September 14th 2072
Terminal, Manhattan
10:00PM

It only took Scorch a few seconds to cross-reference the physical address with the CHN registry, and locate the commcode address for the node. He was mildly surprised that the building had not been taken off of the grid, but to do so may have drawn attention to the location, and the fact that it had not been suggested that his idea to access the home-node was unusual enough that the Blood Rose Gang hadn't thought of it - and wouldn't be defending the node. He spent a moment to analyze the system's responses, determining that it wasn't encrypted, or trapped, but that the firewall software had been upgraded. This last revelation meant that he had a few hours of work ahead of him, and - indeed - it took him most of the night to find a weakness in the unusually strong firewall software. His mind probed against the system for hours, exchanging information in something that resembled a long drawn out negotiation. In the end, however, he managed to gain access to the system, by compromising one of the user-level accounts.

September 15th 2072
Terminal, Manhattan
2:00AM

Scorch logged into the system, and looked around, quickly identifying a number of camera-sensors in the building. He identified a woman and child that he assumed were the Johnson's family, as well as at least five other men, who he assumed were BRG goons. He recorded wet-record simsense of the scenes he could make out - so he could forward them to the team later. He looked around the node, more carefully, to insure that he was, in fact, alone, and set about creating a backdoor account that he could use for the remainder of the run. A well-guarded node might notice the new account within a day, or so, but unless the CHN malfunctions, or goes on alert, he was pretty sure the BRG goons wouldn't be logging in to do any Matrix-maintenance, anytime soon. Although he had spent hours finding a way in, and had only been in for a few seconds, he had already collected the information he came for, and was ready to call it a night. It was late, and he was tired. He would have liked to have covered his tracks more carefully - but since he didn't expect anyone else to be snooping around, he figured he could work on that in the morning.

Scorch logged out, wishing there was more he could do to help the Johnson's family - tonight - but he could see how tipping his hand would put the Johnson in danger. His mind drifted back towards his body, causing the same uncomfortable feeling that usually came with leaving hot-sim VR. His mind raced as he remained in his chair. He took a moment to forward the wet-record simsense streams of the camera-feed data to the rest of the team, along with a brief message explaining the context. <Followed the address. Found this.> It took longer than he would have liked to clear his mind, and fall asleep, but he eventually succumbed to a night of strange disjointed subconscious imagery - most of which revolved around a scenario where Deep-Fried had used the NM-PIC, himself, and the resulting addiction had driven him to blackmail. Scorch slept, fitfully, in his simsense-throne, but when he awoke, he was ready to focus on the upcoming run, and to get his mind off of his personal problems.

[Trigger]

September 14th, 2072
Vamp's Apartment, SoHo
10:30 PM

After letting everyone out of his place, Vamp falls back onto his couch, stretching out and letting the plan of the run so far play out in his head. Stop the convoy, extract Duke, escape, hide out.....where? Drek! Where are we going to lay low until the meet with the Johnson? Not here....frag that noise...but where? Frag, that's going to be another favor I am going to owe Lilith. I hope these guys won't mind helping the Ancient's get back some rockets....

Cuing up his comm again, Vamp thinks of what he needs from his family and sends out another request to Lilith, knowing how much he will owe his ex-lover if she comes through with this.
<Hey love, sorry for all the messages tonight. I've got work, and well, you know how it can be. Does the family have a Bulldog or something along those lines sitting around in one of the garages? I've got maybe 11 grand right now for it, plus a big favor owed to you afterwords. Also, you know any good places to lay low for a day? Hugs and kisses, Vamp >

Finishing the message and sending it off to her, Vamp gets up off the couch and heads into his bedroom, to rummage through his closet for something different to wear out to see Alyssa tonight. It was a night for relaxing and enjoying life, because tomorrow he might die.

[zed]

September 15th, 2072
2:25AM PM

Vamp's commlink buzzed with sound of Lilliths response. <A Bulldog? Yeah we have a spare in the lockup on Maddison and Rutgers. Go ask for Sanchez and tell him Lillith said it was okay to take it for a job. We will need a talk about the favour when you get back from this little job. Keep the cash but we want the van back in the state you took it. Be safe love, XXX>

[Trigger]

September 15th, 2072
Club Androgyny
2:23 AM

Standing outside the club, enjoying an after clubbing smoke, Vamp smiles at the small half-asian girl at his side, his collar around her neck. She smiled demurely up at him, enjoying a cigarette of her own, dressed in a tight Lolita dress. It was a fun night at the club, lots of dancing, smoking, and socializing, but the night was still young for Vamp, even though the club was now closed.

Suddenly a new message appeared in his vision, giving him a start as he forgot that he was waiting for a response. Reading through the message, Vamp smiles at all of the help that Lilith has been giving him with this run. He was going to owe her big after this one.

Flicking his cigarette into the street, Vamp grabs Alyssa by the hand and starts off into the night with her, determined to enjoy the rest of night even more.

[BlackHat]

September 15th 2072
Terminal, Manhattan
7:30PM

The next day passed rather uneventfully for Scorch. After his morning rituals, he checked on the security account he had created the night before, and found everything right where he had left it. He logged in, took a look around, and began covering the tracks he had left before going to bed. Less than a half hour later, he became sure that no casual security scan would uncover his backdoor account. He also reviewed the security log for the node, noting the regular intervals between logins, on the wife's account, as well as the security going off for 5 minutes every morning at 5am. He fired off a few more messages to his new team, informing them of his status and inviting them to ask him for help with whatever they were doing.

He didn't get any takers.

He spent the rest of the day idling watching the node, while going about his usual business, until evening rolled around, and he decided to head back over to Vamp's place, to prepare for whatever pickup was happening that night. He arrived early, as usual - commenting to himself that this was an indication of how hum-drum his life had become since going straight and moving to Manhattan. He buzzed Vamp's comm to announce his arrival as his cab pulled onto the last street. He hoped Vamp had had some luck finding team transportation, because he was going to have a hard time convincing an auto-cab to tail a prisoner-transport-vehicle, otherwise.

[Trigger]

September 15th, 2072
Vamp's Apartment, SoHo
8:30 AM

Vamp had only gotten home and went to sleep four hours ago, but he was awake now and completely refreshed, if a bit cranky for not being able to lounge around in bed for the extra hours like a mundane like he usually does. Showering quietly so not to wake Alyssa, Vamp got ready for the day ahead of him, checking the new message from Scorch and going over their plans from the night before again. Remembering something Scorch had said last night, Vamp typed up a quick message for Sammy as he got ready.

<Hey Sammy, the guys have a question for you. Would our rep take a dive if we just kidnap Duke and bring him to the Johnson to deal with?>

After getting ready for the day, Vamp heads down to street level to summon a cab, telling it to take him to the corner of Maddison and Rutgers.

September 15th, 2072
Maddison and Rutgers
11:03 AM

Arriving at the lock up that Lilith told him to go to, Vamp knocks on the steel door, trying to look like he belonged there. When the view slide open in the door, Vamp quickly spoke up, "I am here to see Sanchez. Lilith sent me here to get a Bulldog for a job." Vamp made sure to where his black and green leather jacket here, so his colors were prominently displayed, and the elf at the door let him right into the lock up.

12:15 AM
Driving out of the lock up, Vamp was quite proud of himself at having been able to get this Bulldog for the team on such short notice. He had been able fall back into the swing of things with his Ancients brothers in the lock up, laughing and exchanging stories with them as he looked over the van. He even shared a couple of drinks with the crew before heading out, for old times sake. But now it was time to get to back on track; driving back to his apartment, Vamp had some more preparations to finish before the other guys showed up at his place for the meet tonight.

[zed]

September 15th, 2072
Sammy's response
11:47 AM

Sammy's response came as Vamp discussed the terms of the loan of the Bulldog with Sanchez. <Mr Johnsons gone on vacation, suggest any deviation for the agreed contract should be handled with delicacy. Something doesnt add up.>. The warning was clear to Vamp, the Johnson was'nt responding to SAmmy's questions which meant possible trouble.

[zed]

September 15th, 2072
Warehouse - End of Columbia street
9:58 PM

Vamp drove the Bulldog slowly down Columbia street along the exposed docks. Several trucks and over transport vehicles moved about, unloading containers and other goods from docked ships. The warehouse Sammy had pointed you to sat at the very end of the road. This far down all was quiet, perhaps too quiet compared to the fairly busy docks behind you.

Pulling up on the road down from the warehouse you sit for several minutes watching it. A light burned in an office (you presumed) 1 floor up otherwise all was quiet.

[BlackHat]

Scorch, who had been riding shotgun and glancing around the AR iconography during the ride over sat up, and looked intently at the warehouse. "So, ah, do we honk, or something?" He had his taser tucked into his jacket pocket, and seemed to reach into the pocket nervously. "And what's our signal?" Scorch began to tap on the dashboard, as he looked around again - looking for any sign of a matrix presence near the warehouse.

[BlackHat]

Before Vamp could answer, or inquire what 'signal' Scorch was talking about, the hacker shook his head and said, "Matrix is quiet here. No interference , but everything is silent. I mean, everything. Someone went out of their way, to keep things offline." He ceased his tapping on the dashboard. "We can relay a signal - no problem - but there isn't much I can do to scope the place out."

[Trigger]

September 15th, 2072
Warehouse - End of Columbia street
9:58 PM

Taking a final drag from his Native American Spirits snuff cigarette, Vamp flicks the glowing butt out of the window of Bulldog, tapping the control for the window to roll back up afterwords. Vamp has changed again for this meet, now wearing black jeans and a tight black t-shirt over his form fitting body armor and under his long armor lined trench coat. His hair is tied black in a long, tight braid, falling over the handle of his sword, strapped on behind his coat. His Predator is strapped into its holster under his arm, loaded with explosive rounds and fitted with its silencer, and he has 3 of his survival knives placed around his body. All in all, Vamp came prepared.

"It's just you and me, Scorch. Sammy says this guy has the gear that we need for the run, but he doesn't trust the guy very much, so neither do I. I want you to stay out here in case the drek hits the fan, be ready to go if we need to, you know? I will go in, get our stuff and get the hell out asap," Vamp says with a sigh as he opens the door of the van. "Keep in constant contact with me over the 'trix, k? I'm going in."

Vamp gives the place a long stare down as he makes his way to the door.

[zed]

September 15th, 2072
Warehouse - End of Columbia street
10:00 PM

Crossing the open space between the van and the door Trigger glances around but sees nothing unexpected. What is unexpected is as he goes to knock on the door, it opens. At the same time the vehicle door opens. From the darkness inside a males voice say "Bring the van inside, don't want to attract too much attention. Quickly now, quickly."

[BlackHat]

Scorch began to protest lettign Vamp go in, alone, but it didn't take much of a look from Vamp to remind him that he would be worse than useless if things got violent. Although oblivious to it, himself, his nervous ticks wouldn't do much to ease the tension in the warehouse, either. He nodded grimly, and let Vamp head off on his own. As Vamp crossed the distance, Scorch put together a new encrypted communication channel between them. He had just settled his mind into the vehicle's node, drifting into VR, and switching on the AC-fans to help with the snuff-smoke-smell when he noticed (through the van's sensors) that the large vehicle-door had begun to open. He brought the communication-link to the forefront of his mind, awaiting some sort of status update from Vamp.

[Trigger]

After giving the guy a once over, Vamp's gut told him that there wasn't going to be any violence here tonight if he didn't start it. Speaking at an inaudible level, Vamp's subvocal mic picks up the words and translates them to text to send off to Scorch.

<Bring the van up to the warehouse door. Keep your eyes sharp, I'm not feeling an ambush, but things could go south on a hair.>

After sending the message off to Scorch, Vamp turns his attention back to the guy, "The van will be right in chum. We are just going to be here for a minute and then we can all get out of here. Null sheen, ne?"

[BlackHat]

Scorch received the text-message from Vamp, and responded, in kind. <BRT> He then concentrated on moving the vehicle into which his mind had jumped. Although this was not the first time Scorch had "rigged" a vehicle, the sensation was not something he thought he would get used to anytime soon. Seeing the world through the standard vehicle sensor array was something he wasn't used to, and neither was the feeling of his arms and legs rotating 360-degrees around his body as he crept closer to the garage door. Still, the few times he had tried to manually drive a vehicle, he had crashed the thing, awkwardly - mistaking some AR indicator on the dashboard holoprojector for an obstacle on the road. His experience remote-controlling vehicles was only slightly better. Jumping in - perceiving everything through his mind's reality filter - was the only way Scorch felt at all comfortable behind the wheel.

[zed]

September 15th, 2072
Inside the Warehouse
10:02 PM

Even before Scorch drives the van into the warehouse the metal roller door begins to close. As it closes behind him a number of very bright halogen spotlights light up around the warehouse all directed at the van and the doorway where vamp is just entering, momentarily dazzling you before flare comp and thermographic sensors and vision kick in. Seconds later all but one of the lights are shut off, the last one is tilted upwards slightly shining

"Gentleman, please accept my apologies I just needed to ensure that there was no additional threat to our little soiree this evening. Now, for the gentleman in the Van, if you would please exit by your door and walk forwards that would be very kind of you, and you sir please step forwards and join you're comrade. Thank you." This voice, different to the one Vamp had heard at the door comes from above you in the roof space, is full of pleasantry, more of a host greeting an honored guest, "And it goes without saying you should leave your larger firearms in the van or on the floor in front of you, I do hate it when misunderstandings arise and people get hurt."

As Vamp enters the warehouse the door closes behind him with a loud click.

[BlackHat]

Scorch doesn't wait for confirmation from Vamp before opening the driver's-side door on the van, and slowly coming out of VR. For a moment, he considers leaving the van running, but in a closed area, that might not be a great idea, and might only serve to spook their hosts. So, as Scorch climbs out, and joins Vamp's side, he shuts off the engine, but maintains an AR connection to the Van's node.

[Trigger]

Vamp nods his head in the direction of the speaking voice, making sure not to show that he knows where the man is, and that he can see in this environment. Holding his hands open and spread slightly out from his sides, Vamp shows that he isn't carrying any sort of large firearm with a smile, and takes two steps forward as he speaks to the voice in the shadows.

"No need to apologize, we understand business protocol," he says, still smiling. "I know that these can be rather tense meetings, so why don't we simply get to the business portion so we can get back to being relaxed as soon as possible?"

[BlackHat]

Scorch stayed back where Vamp started, letting him move forward and hopefully take some attention off of him. Scorch's eyes burned - or rather, the part of his brain that connected to them burned - still reeling from the simsense overload that the spotlights caused. He was adjusting, but he was glad he didn't have to function right this second - this was the sort of thing that usually set off his 'attacks'. Instead, Scorch kept his gaze low, and his hands in the pockets of his jacket. The outline of his taser was unmistakable, but Scorch doubted his little toy was the kind of firepower these people were worried about.

[zed]

The man atop the stairs seems to relax a little at Vamps reassuring words, "Excellent, well perhaps Captain black there could bring you and your companion upto my office"

"Sir, yes sir." came the voice from behind trigger.

"The rest of you stand down, though keep 2 sentries posted. And ensure the goods are ready to be inspected. We have business elsewhere and do not want to keep these gentlemen from their business. Now please gentlemen I wish to discuss something with you."

Around you a few lights flicked on giving you chance to take a look around the warehouse for the first time. At the back of the building two large trucks sat - black, no marking - Flat beds with curtain sides. Several large spot lights dotted the building - although unexpected it was the men you saw. A full combat squad of Lone start spec Ops busied themselves dismantling the the spots and moving a couple of crates from one of the trucks to a table being laid out in front of the van.

Captain Black smiled at the flicker of emotion crossing your faces. "This way gentleman" he said pointing up the stairs to a retreating figure. "if you will"

[Trigger]

Smiling at Captain Black, and keeping his eyes from wandering down to the assault rifle in the man's hands, Vamp starts towards the stairs in the back of the warehouse, subvocal recording as soon as the Captain was at his back.

<Just keep your cool chum, things are still under control. We will get what we came for, make with some pleasantries, and then get out of here as quickly as we came in. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) If things go south, stay behind me, I will get us out of here.>

[zed]

September 15th, 2072
A small office,upstairs, In warehouse
10:05 PM

You are lead into a small office come meeting room. It seems things have been cleared leaving a small table in the middle of the room with a holo-projector sat on it.

At the far end of the room you see the obvious leader of the group. A man in his mid 40's you imagine, dark hair, a haunting gauntlike face showing little or no emotion. The Man in front of you

"Good evening gentlemen. I have to say I had been informed there would be more of you but that is by the by. I trust you speak for you group?" Almost without waiting he continues, "Good, good. I have a little predicament but at the same time it is fortuitous that you should be seeking merchandise that I can provide for you. And in an interesting twist of fate my predicament and your need for the merchandise seem to collide."

He makes a gesture and you hear Captain blacks boots on the tiled floor recede followed by the closing of the door. "Whilst i trust my men implicitly it is best they do not hear all of the details."

He walks over to the holo-projector and turns it on. The face of Duke Torres suddenly appears and begins to slowly rotate. "Gentlemen I believe this is you, shall we say, current assignment. This is also my little problem. You see, and what i tell you hear stays here, Duke - or should i say James Riley - is one of my Covert Operatives. In fact he has been placed with the Blood Rose gang for a significant portion of his career. He has reached the dizzy heights of trust within the gang and is used for his uncanny ability to ferret out intelligence that the gang can use. As you can imagine that intelligence is very carefully selected by my own intelligence operatives and fed back through Duke or James to the Blood Rose gang to allow them to be, shall we say, at the right place at the right time."

He pauses and looks at both of you in turn, "Since a lot of the intel that is fed is to the detriment of the NYPD I am sure you can begin to see my dilemma. Here is my operative on his way to a PeeDee Interrogation center where there is a possibility things might come out that would cause me and my superiors some embarrassment - not least the fall out on the streets that could occur if either the NYPD found out who was behind the gangs success and of course the fall out if the Blood Roses found out they have risen to their dizzying successes as mere puppets in an intricate game of whos got the biggest one"

"This is where you gentlemen come in. Clearly we cannot afford for Mr Torres to arrive at the station any more than the Blood Rose gang can afford for it to happen so we need the problem solving and well, since you're already looking to solve the problem I have taken it upon myself to provide you with what you need to help you fix it more easily."

He pauses as he turns off the projector then looks back up at you, "So Gentlemen I present a choice to you - you can go your own way and solve said problem without my help or you can accept my assistance and hopefully the job will be made so much simpler and of course you might find my gratitude one day expressed in other matters."

He stops talking and looks pointedly at both of you obviously waiting for an answer or questions.