The Found Arcana - Chapter 9, The last Tarot card Options

[Tecumseh]

Mato reviews the NDA, looking for obvious loopholes. He tries to see if the contract is with Jhonson, Goldberg, and Associates or with a specified client. Importantly, he also looks to see if the NDA is being executed under Seattle Metroplex Law or a different extraterritorial authority, like a megacorp.

He also checks to see if the 50k is locked in. He wants to make sure there's room for negotiation once the team knows the details of the job.

"I do need to confirm that the 50k is a starting point to facilitate further conversation," Mato saws, glancing at Mr. Smith over the top of his glasses. "There are many particulars that determine the appropriate pricing of our services, and we don't leave that decision solely to the client's discretion. We would view 50k as the floor, not the ceiling." Mato is doing his best to walk a fine line between professional etiquette and hard-nosed negotiation. But, as a lawyer, Mr. Smith should be accustomed to it.

[Beta]

<<Hey team, matrix info on this firm in general and Mr. Smith in particular is interestingly vague. Both look real and legit, but what they do isn't well defined. Kind of reminds me of when I looked up SIS. If this was a novel I'd be going 'Oh, they are going to turn out to be involved in something dodgy!' Since this isn't a novel I'll just say that at a guess a lot of their clients are avoiding figurative bright lights.>>

She thanked her agent, and sent it back to checking her persona and drones for marks. Meanwhile she looked at Mr. Smith and the area around the building for signs of silent running matrix devices.

[Thanee]

<< Not gonna lie. Getting a memory wipe does not sound pleasant, and it's certainly something I do not want to experience, if it can be avoided. But since we are most likely taking this job, we should be good, right? And that NDA sounds like it's just putting a rule on what I would consider common courtesy, anyways. Is that too naive? Well, I'm not a lawyer. >>

[Gilga]

Mr. Smith looks annoyed at Tamarind's comment but preserves his etiquette and answers her question paitiently. Not wanting to mislead you, I'll say that you need a professional lawyer specializing in contractual law to carefully read the contract and give you an opinion if an advanced drone falls under the category of a third party or not. I am only legal aid and not qualified to deduce these things.

Mato's comment makes him take a deep breath. The client commits to 50k, as far as I understand to convey seriousness.
I have no further information about this service and am not a side to negotiations about your compensation. So I do not know if 50k is a ceiling or a floor and how open the client is to negotiate.

What I can do for you is to collect your inquiries and reservations about the NDA and convey them to Mr. Goldberg to see if he is willing to amend the contract.

[Tecumseh]

<<It's not something we should sign off on lightly>> Mato comms. <<But, to be fair, 50K is not light.>>

<<I'm serious about not letting clients set prices, especially when we're in the dark about true risks involved. As I said, I'm willing to sign the NDA myself and handle negotiations if others don't want to potentially subject themselves to an intrusive procedure if the conversation with Mr. Goldberg or the client go sideways.>>

Mato says to Mr. Smith, "We accept the symbolism of the figure a sign of seriousness. But please convey to Mr. Goldberg that, should we sign the NDA, there would be additional negotiations based on the particulars of the task and our own assessment of the risks we would assume. If that is understood, then I am comfortable with the conditions to continue the conversation."

<<Razak suggested that we take this. I'd be curious to know if he arranged for this or was simply aware of it. The puppet master or simply an outside observer? Bobby, you know him best. What do you think?>>

[Gilga]

Mr. Smith says That is understood.

[Jack_Spade]

<<The captain knows what he does. I'm pretty sure it's meant as a test for our new capabilities as well as an opportunity to increase SIS' influence. I'm in for the negotiations.>>

Bobby answered, but continued to glare at the lawyer

[Tecumseh]

Mato appears to nod to himself but is really nodding at Bobby. He glances around the room to gauge the reactions of his new colleagues.

[Beta]

<<I'm in. Money talks>>

[Gilga]

Mr. Smith is waiting for the team to sign the document, So are you signing the NDA right now, or should I come and pick it up later?

[ Spoiler ]

Anything you would like from Mr. Smith? He confirmed that you are welcome to negotiate.

[Thanee]

<< I am also in. But we should not sign it right now. We should take time to examine it properly. If anything, that will make us look more professional, I believe, and less, you know, desperate. >>

[Tecumseh]

Mato is torn. On one hand, he hates the games, the posturing. He prefers to-the-point directness. On the other hand, Raven is a new member of the team. He wants her to feel heard, and her advice valued, otherwise she'll stop offering it. And, who can say? Perhaps she is right.

<<Many of our services - which is to say, our clients' needs - are time sensitive. Part of our reputation is doing discrete, reliable work. The other part is being available when clients need us. We can push them, but only so far.>>

In this case, Mato knows that Mr. Smith didn't just see an ARO billboard and wander in off the street. Jhonson, Goldberg, and Associates have obviously sought SIS out, perhaps based on the Tarot work they did last September. No matter how quiet you are, even if you never squeaked or rattled, word always leaks out. Always. So if SIS is being courted, then perhaps there is an opportunity to play hard-to-get.

Mato tries to find the middle way.

"As these provisions are unusual, allow us to review the matter more closely," Mato tells Mr. Smith.

"Let's schedule a meeting with client at her convenience tomorrow," Mato suggests. "If everything is in order, we will sign the NDA there and proceed with the particulars. Is that agreeable?"

[Gilga]

Mr. Smith stands up and says Sadly, as much as I'd like to, I cannot set a meeting until the NDA is signed. However, feel free to drop by our offices once you are ready to sign. If I am not there, ask for Goldberg, and text me if you have more questions. He said and then commented It has been a pleasure, detectives, but the hour is late, and I need to get to my family.

With that, he walks to his car, happy that it is still where he left it and drives away.

[Tecumseh]

"Today is Thursday the 2nd," Mato says, although clearly Mr. Smith will know the same. "I presume your offices are open during regular business hours tomorrow?"

He stands when Mr. Smith stands, and offers to shake if the human is willing. If the black cybernetics give the man pause, Mato will not press the issue.

Once Goldberg is gone, Mato sits again.

"Can we put out feelers?" Mato asks the assembled group. "If the pay is 50k, then the potential threat of 'criminals trying to steal the card' seems all but assured. If criminals know about it, then there must be some rumors or rumblings if we listen the right way.

"Bobby, should we bounce this off Lysander? Or your talismonger? Raven, Tamarind, I don't know who you know. But, Raven, perhaps your talismonger, given the arcane nature of the tarot cards.

"I could try Cheng Mu Chou but I worry that he could be one of the criminals in question."

Bobby would remember that this is the Triad lieutenant and that the agency had helped recover his wayward son, Bau Chou.

[Thanee]

"I can check with my talismonger," Rachel confirms. "See, if she knows something about a special tarot card."

"Is there anything we can do, except thorough reading, to check whether the NDA does only what we were told and does not contain anything else, that we might not want to agree to? Maybe find a standard NDA document and compare the differences?"

[Tecumseh]

"Everything is standard," Mato assures Raven, "except for the clause around the memory wipe.

"It appears to be a legally binding document. As we are tax-paying SINners, we should treat it as such."

[Jack_Spade]

"Well, I certainly won't allow any mage to rummage around in my memories. And you all shouldn't either - too much stuff to be blackmailed with. So the only option is Laes. So one of us has to abstain from the meeting to get our unconscious hoops and watch over them.

And I wouldn't just yet ask around - that could stir up trouble before we are paid to deal with it.
So anyone volunteer to stay in the car? If no-one else wants to I'll do it."

Bobby interjected

[Tecumseh]

"I definitely would ask around. Being fully informed will give us the greatest possible leverage during negotiations. And should we decide that the heat is more than we can bear, then perhaps doing so saves our lives."

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby shrugged:
"If you insist I'll ask Lysander. Though that won't do our reputation as discret operation any favors. Personally, I'm pretty confident we can deal with any opposition below big corp or dragon.

But a compromise - I call Razak first, ask what he knows about the customer and the heat they might pull in."

[Tecumseh]

Mato nods to agree to the compromise. If he was going to listen to Raven, he needed to listen to Bobby too.

"I just figure that if our employers know about it and if the criminals know about it - parties with interests that have a vector counter to or, at best, tangential to our own -" (where is Mato coming up with this language? a math textbook? the British trid miniseries?) "then we put ourselves at a disadvantage if we do not know about it," he says.

"I estimated that we could trust Lysander. If you believe otherwise, please let me know and I'll update my assessment of him accordingly.

"But it seemed to me that these tarot cards must be talked about in certain circles, especially magically ones, and that an agency such as ours - with an Awakened inclination and a professional reputation for both the hidden and the found arcana - would be able to make some inquiries under the guise of occupational curiosity."

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby nodded:

"Lysander can be trusted - to sell to the highest bidder and protect his sources. That protection does not include the buyer.
The main thing is: We don't know which card our would be employers are after. We know of three cards already and that the Yakuza is involved.
Asking now for all cards might get us more heat than asking for one specific card."

Bobby might not have a new math computer or whatever in his head, but he certainly understood basic arithmetic.

Copying in the team he wrote to Razak:

<<We just made contact with the client's lawyer - asking for an NDA and a mind wipe in case we decline. Do you have any information on the client? Which card are they after and are they trustworthy enough not to abuse the trust we'd have to extend for that?>>

[Beta]

Tamarind was happy to sit quietly and listen to the others for a bit. They seemed to be bringing up most of the points for and against, so it wasn't like they needed another voice involved at that point. And calling Razak seemed like a good idea, although the man gave up information about as willingly as the proverbial Sioux grandmother gave out compliments. (although Tamarind's own observations didn't support that stereotype, so maybe it was just Tamarind that he didn't give much info to)

But there was something they'd not discussed yet. It might be early for that part of the discussion, but maybe not. "I doubt anyone makes a move against us until we have this 'tarot card.' But a sufficiently informed antagonist might have ideas of the preliminaries to the card moving, so might start paying attention to us as early as the meeting tomorrow. It isn't impossible that someone tailed the messenger and could be starting to pay attention to us now, but presumably the law firm has to contact multiple people in a week and they could only put so much attention to each visit."

"Still, it is probably time to start stepping up operational security, such as regular re-booting of all devices and I'll have my agent inspect everyone for marks regularly -- with your permission. I'll launch my full current resources to the job of looking to see if any physical assets are observing our building. And at some point tomorrow we should discuss if there is any point in trying to use some scheme to try and arrive at the law firm unannounced -- the easiest way to stay on top of things would be to bribe someone on the inside but we can hope that they are vigilant enough to catch those cases quickly."

"And could someone explain just what 'tarot card' is an euphamism for? Are we going to be holding some sort of bio-awakened drug? BTL?"

[ Spoiler ]

I'm happy for the explanation of the cards to happen off-screen, no need to type it out for me, but perhaps a summary for Thanee would be good?

,

[Tecumseh]

"It's an actual card," Mato answers. "An arcane artifact of some sort. Very desirable and thus very profitable. Bobby presumably knows more than I do. Perhaps Raven does too."

Mato nods to Tamarind's suggestions about surveillance.

"Good points. You were hired as a subject matter expert and we'll defer to you as such.

"Bobby's counter-surveillance is unparalleled. He can sweep the area effectively, but even he can't be up all night.

"Unless there's a specific warning or sign of danger, let's not overcomplicate our trip to the lawyer's office. We can talk about it the morning if we detect anything amiss overnight."

[Gilga]

Razak says texts back The law firm has been vouched for by reliable sources. No information on the client or on cards in the market.

[Jack_Spade]

"Well, that clears that up. Alright, I'll ask Lysander if there is any news on the card game currently in Seattle. Shame that I don't have to trade anything at the moment. Hey Tamarind, would you like to come with me? Your current info on the whole Denver situation might be worth a bit of a discount - and you'd get to know Lysander."

Bobby replied a bit resigned.