tisoz's World, the IC thread Options

[tisoz]

Wednesday, April 15, 1405

Apoc's cellphone rings. It is the temp service with news that Leonard D. Kesselbottom has been hired by EDT, Inc., pending a satisfactory drug screening. He is to report to work April 16th at 4pm. If he fails to pass his drug screen or fails to report to work, , he will be charged :nuyen:500 for breach of contract. The drug screen can be done at any Doc Wagon location. She gives a number to have the results sent.

[Beast of Revolut...]

Renegade conjures another watcher to replace the last one watching the warehouse.

[TinkerGnome]

"Just great..." Apoc grumbled, but nevertheless he set out to have the drug test done. He was clean, of course, but it was still a violation.

[Panzergeist]

Blender responds to a "decker for hire" ad on a local shadow message board. He asks the decker to meet him in a local bar down by the docks at 9 PM.

[Madda_Gaska]

Preston

At approximately 8:59 PM, a man dressed fully in black biking leathers rides slowly along the docks on his Blitzen. A reasonably full looking black rucksack is securely attached to his back, and his dark visor open, revealing a faint glint of impressively blue eyes as he pulls up in a convenient place.

As he kicks the stand down, the pistol holster attached to his hip becomes more evident. He looks around, then darts a quick glance up to the sign for the bar, before cutting the lights and engine.

This area looks a little rough, I hope the guy who left the message gets here soon.

[Panzergeist]

At this time, Blender has been sitting inside the bar for about ten minutes. He sips his bottled water as he squirms in his seat, trying to find a comfortable sitting position despite the swords strapped to his back.

[Madda_Gaska]

Preston takes another glance around and decides to 'bite the bullet', as it were. He removes the helmet, revealing amiable elven features, two electric blue datajacks and electric blue circuitboard tattos 'joining' the 'jacks to his electric blue hair. Shifting the helmet to his left hand, he heads into the bar.

[Panzergeist]

Blender flicks a peanut at the newcomer with his finger as he passes by. After getting his attention, he waves him over to the booth.

[Madda_Gaska]

Preston looks momentarily worried before he guesses who the peanut bombardier is likely to be. He approaches the table.

"You were the one looking for Matrix support?"

Or am I heading for trouble?

[tisoz]

Thursday, April 16, 1545

Apoc shows up at the EDT warehouse and approaches the guard shack. A guard comes out to see what he wants and hears that he is supposed to start work at the next shift.

The guard goes inside and returns shortly. He gives Apoc a pass card and tells him where to park and who to see inside the warehouse.

Once inside the warehouse, Apoc meets the supervisor and has the job explained to him along with a slight interrogation as to his qualifications. It is explained that on this shift the warehouse employees unload the incoming trucks and shelve the pieces. Since many of the items are the same, and go to the same spot in the warehouse, this is the easiest shift to learn and also the shift with the least number of employees. The items are scanned in, and checked against the Bill Of Lading, new stock number stickers are placed on the boxes and then the item is shelved according to that number.

Apoc spends half the night working closely with Bob before being left to work on his own.

[TinkerGnome]

Apoc goes about his first night on the job being very focused on what he is doing. He's concious of the security system in place, so he doesn't try to get a look around or roam from his work areas, though he makes careful note of anything that he manages to see as he does move around.

His particular interest is in what kind of screening is done on employees as they come in to work.

[tisoz]

Apoc has access to all areas of the warehouse except the cage, but he passes it frequently as he drives the forklift past, running boxes from in front of dock doors to their places on the racks of pallets. He locates all the secondary targets, noting they are all nearly the same size. He discreetly examines one. If he has deciphered the computerese correctly, it appears to be a box containing 12 individually packaged chips of computer programs.

Apoc doesn't try getting too near the supervisors desk, as it is right out in open view to anyone. He does make an effort to do some surveillance on the cage. They have not given Apoc the code for it. When someone has a box for it, they call for Bob, and he puts it in the cage.

As it is pretty east to know when Bob is going to access the cage, Apoc manages to run his forklift to where he can observe. Bob punches in some numbers on the maglock, opens the door, shelves the case, and closes the metal door behind him. No spirit materializes.

At lunch time, Apoc gets some snacks and a drink from the vending machines. There is a long wait to use the one microwave. No one addresses Apoc for about half the time, then one man explains.

"We're not trying to be rude. It just seems like it isn't worth getting to know the new guys until they've been here a few days. They're always quitting. It dawns on them how much the placement service is taking from them, then how much gets deducted from their check for union dues," another employee snorts, "and taxes and benefits. It makes it seem like it hardly pays to work."

The guy who snorted adds, "Yeah, and it seems like the only thing our so called union does is try to explain how lucky we are to have a job. If the company cuts back on employees or makes us pay for a benefit they used to pay for, they say they kept some of the jobs or a few of the benefits."

The first speaker continues, "We've lost some new guys the first night. I think the record was 20 minutes. He asked where the bathroom was and never came back. So just hang in there, and when we get used to you, we'll be a bit friendlier."

Apoc wants to bail after the depressing exchange. He'd ask where the bathroom was too, if this were a real job and he was being fleeced as thoroughly as these poor slobs. But the payoff should be better and he wants to see the enter/exit procedure.

After a short eternity the shift ends, some of the guys working the next shift are mingling amongst the current shift's employees and Apoc sees a little bit of a difference. These guys seem a to stand a little straighter, move a little quicker. They don't seem as beaten as the guys you have been working with.

Apoc flows along with his shift as it punches the timeclock and heads out the door. They walk in almost a file toward the guard shack, entering the outer door. There is a door in front of them, leading to where the guards are. To the right is a short hall turning a left corner and ending at a windowed door, the left wall is made of some transparent substance giving the guards a full view of the people in the corridor. Bob swipes his company ID card and the door opens. The employees enter one at a time. When Apoc's turn comes, he swipes his card, goes through the door and sees that the left wall is transparent here, too. He waits as the guard buzzes the next windowed door open. He pushes the door open, sees that the left wall is still transparent and the exit door leading to the employee parking area. Apoc starts his vehicle and approaches the gate, again swiping his company ID and opening the gate.

Friday, April 17, 0030

[Panzergeist]

Blender nods. Leaning close to the decker, he says "My name is Blender. You must be Preston." At Preston's nod, he continues. "The job is burglary; steal a few packages from an electronics warehouse. It pays 210,000 nuyen upon completion, and you would be the fifth member of the team. We have already begun work on the job, but we don't have a decker yet. Sound good to you?"

[TinkerGnome]

Apoc wipes the sweat from his brow and pulls the van around a corner a few blocks away and parking long enough to jot down a description of everything he saw and can remember into his pocket secretary before he forgets anything.

That done, he heads back to the garage and calls up the gang to let them know that he has info.

[WinterRat1]

Dragon is just sitting in the warehouse, manning the fort, playing cards or something until the others get back.

[Madda_Gaska]

Preston considers this for a moment before seating himself opposite Blender.
"Sure, sounds interesting. Two questions though: What's the split, and what's the timeframe?"

[Panzergeist]

"The split is even. That's a little over 40 grand a piece if you join. The timefram is one week."

[Beast of Revolut...]

Renegade replaces the watcher again.

[Madda_Gaska]

Preston

"Okay, sounds good. What do you need me to do?"

[Panzergeist]

"First, let's go back to the safehouse so we all can fill you in on the rest of it." Blender takes the new decker back to the team's safehouse.

[Madda_Gaska]

Preston happily hops back on his Blitzen and follows Blender, glad to be getting away from the rather oppressive docks.

[tisoz]

Dragon's phone rings. It is Xiao Li asking if you can give her a ride to the Ford dealership so she can pay for the work on her car and arrange to have it towed home. They close at noon on saturday and re-open on Monday.

[WinterRat1]

Dragon looks over at Beast. "I gotta step out for a little bit. I'll be back shortly. Give me a call if anything important happens."

After leaving the warehouse, he drives around a bit to make sure he isn't being followed, then goes to pick up Xiao Li and takes her to the carshop. After the work is paid for and the car towed back, he drives her home and heads back to the warehouse, all the while being careful not to be followed.

[tisoz]

After picking up Grandma and on the way to the Ford dealership, Dragon hears Grandma explain what happened. It is hard to follow some of the story as the woman is nearly in tears.

It seems Grandma pulled into the dealership when her temperature light came on. She explained this to the service manager and took a seat while she waited her turto get into the garage. The manager called her to his desk a few hours later and informed her she would need a head job and that it would run over a thousand nuyen.

Grandma didn't have over a thousand nuyen and was going to pay what she owed and try to limp the car home, stopping as necessary to let it cool down. However the car would no longer even start, and the bill was over 200 nuyen. that is when she called Dragon. She responds to Dragon's inquiries that she couldn't have driven more than a mile or 5 minutes between the light coming on and going directly to the dealership.

When Dragon gets to the dealership and tries to find out how a car that seemed fine except for a temperature light was now totally inoperable. The service manager points him toward a large human who is loudly joking to a couple other humans. Dragon asks him the same question.

"Oh, yeah. I remember that, a cooling problem. I drove it in here and was letting it warm up, and the next thing I know Bubba is finding me and telling me water blew about 3 feet high out of that little bottle thing beside the radiator."

Dragon guesses that the guy left the car running and wandered off, forgetting about it. "You say you drove the car in here," Dragon states.

"Yeah," Bubba answers, not realizing where this is leading.

"And now the car is inoperable?"

"I don't know about that," Bubba answers, starting to realize Dragon suspects he caused the damage to Grandma's car.

Dragon is getting angry that this fool ruined Grandma's car and is denying any responsibility. He notices Bubba and his buddies picking up tools that would make nice improvised clubs and realizes he is outnumbered 4 to 1 and that there are a lot more mechanics to come to their buddies aid. Dragon curbs his anger and returns to the service manager hoping to reach some compromise. He relates what Bubba told him and what he surmises has happened.

To Dragon's surprise, the service manager tells him the car will start. Maybe Dragon misunderstood the problem. But a half hour later, after many frantic tries by Bubba to start the car, it still sits there inoperable.

Dragon asks what they intend to do. The service manager says collect the money that is owed for "servicing" the car. Grandma cannot believe they want her to pay for them ruining her car.

[WinterRat1]

Dragon figured it would be a nice quick thing: pick Grandma up, pay for the work, go home.

Yeah right. Geez, even in the real world nothing's that simple. Well so be it. Too bad it isn't in the shadows, or I'd blow his sorry hoop into next year. And that sorry yabos who think they're all scary looking. Oh well, guess I'll have to be legit here.

Looking over at the manager, he says, "OK, Mr...um..." he looks at the manager's nametag, which reads 'Steve'. "Steve. Do you mind if I call you Steve? Steve. Here's how I see things. My grandma says she drove into your repair shop here after the temperature light went on. Couldn't have been more than five minutes away from here. No problem, for you and your professionals here." He manages to keep most of the sarcasm out of his voice.

Taking a quick glance at the mechanics to make sure no one's getting any stupid ideas, he continues. Leaning over the counter in a friendly manner, he adds, "So I'm thinking it's all under control when I get the call to come pick her up. But then, a funny thing happens. I get here, and I find out that one of your boys says he drives it into the garage, and what a funny coincidence, suddenly it don't work too good anymore, and what was a minor problem becomes a car killing one."

Looking the manager straight in the eye, he gives him a cold, hard stare. "So here's how I see the situation. You and your boys are entitled to 200 nuyen for looking at the car. That's standard. You take a look, you get paid for your time."

Hearing this, Grandma starts to angrily protest. Turning to her, Dragon says gently but firmly in Chinese, "Grandma, let me take care of this. Don't worry, it'll be ok." After calming her down, he looks back at Steve.

Shrugging, he says, "Yeah, 200 nuyen for making a bad problem worse? Drek happens. But that's the way it goes. So like I was saying, 200 nuyen is your due. The 1500 nuyen? Bulldrek. Here's your choices.
Option A: You get 200 nuyen, car gets fixed, you get 1500 more nuyen.
Option B: You get 200 nuyen, car doesn't get fixed, you get nothing else.
Option C: Try to push your luck, and you get drek.

You scan me? So what's it going to be chummer? You tell me."

Keeping his senses finally tuned for any funny stuff, Dragon calmly and subtlely puts on his shock gloves under the counter, using his body to shield and conceal the movements. He also prepares himself to quick draw the Guardian and/or the Walther just in case it gets ugly.

I can't believe this. Getting ready to throw down with a freaking service manager and some lousy mechanics. Either way, these guys are going to get it, I'll make sure of that. They just don't know it yet. Gonna take care of this, but not now, now just yet. Or if they get stupid, maybe right now, just like this. His move, let's see what's up.

Using his cyberears to stay aware of the mechanics, he looks expectantly at the manager. "Well?"