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

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

Composure: 9d6t5 2

It took Bobby quite a lot of willpower to keep his cool.

After forwarding the message to the group, he sent back:
<<A sorry won't cut it. You messed up big time. Get me your boss on the line now or you'll be holding the bag personally.>>

[Gilga]

Frisson responds >> I thought you'd be grateful. I bullshit people often, but I never tell them about it afterward. It was a courtesy because my plan was a bust, and that tip may be worth a lot of money to you. My boss?! No good deed goes unpunished. Anyhow, if you haven't figured it out already, my boss is Tony, head of security at the Gates, and he does not have a comlink. I hope you chill down and do not be an ass about it, but you are free to tell him about my extracurricular activity.

[Jack_Spade]

<<That is why you should go to Tony and get him on the line now.
Your stupid stunt is going to ruin everything, because you don't know what I know now.>>

[Gilga]

The next voice message says >> Look, Robert Tony will not be accessible before noon even if I wanted to get out of bed and get dressed and go down to his horrible "office". You woke me up, man, I would be there, Tony would be there - but your 50k would not be there unless you get a grip. I'll make it simple to you because shit happened to us too. If you haven't sold the card, figure out how to avoid the sale without losing too much face. If you have sold the card, just track it. Doubt the Halloweeners would be active before evening as well, so you would have enough time to bitch about me to Tony.

She seems genuinely interested in you finding the card. Either because she fears Tony or perhaps Vala? or because for some reason, she finds this entire matter enjoyable. If any, the woman seems to be very excited when things are uncomfortable or dangerous -- but then again, can you really say what about the conversation last night was genuine and what was her playing a part?

[Jack_Spade]

<<I'll let Tony deal with you when he wakes up then.>> Bobby sent back

To Big Stank he said: "Well, looks like you have them beat. You'll get some nice concessions out of them if you threaten to destroy the card, I guess."

[Tecumseh]

Mato relays confirmation that the Gau considers the Halloweeners to be the Crimson Crush's rivals.

"Alright, let's get out into the bright light of day," Mato says to Gau, taking the card back from him. He doesn't want to put it in his smuggling compartment because then he'd just have to pull it out a minute later. He slips it into his pocket but keeps his hand on it. With the other hand he will grab Gau's elbow and steer him out of the bank if necessary, but hopefully it doesn't come to that.

Mato goes to retrieve his weapon from security.

<<Coming out. All clear?>> he comms to confirm before stepping out the door.

[Gilga]

@Bobby To Bobby, Big Stank says, "I am not threatening anything; I am destroying the card here and now, and they'll never have it."

@Mato: Gau looks at Mato, and his eyes rest on the pocket where the card is. He does not try anything, though. He is silent, along with his thoughts, and he walks reluctantly out of the bank, a bit resentful that Mato did not allow him more time with that new toy. The security guard obliges and mutters, have a good day, sir.

@Tamarind: The Humanis gangers get dangerously close to the bank street in their morning patrol; their convoy would pass the banks in a few minutes. She is uncertain if these human supremacists would do anything on cooperate turf in broad daylight but do they need to find out?

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby sent: <<Wait. Big Stank wants to destroy the card. He is worried about Humanis though. Damn, we should have brought a fake along. Stall a bit, I have to make a call>>

Bobby nodded and put on a smile: "Hah, nice. Though make sure to keep your head very close to the card when you burn it. Artifacts like that are super safe to destroy just like that. I'm sure it will be a great learning experience for you.
Gives us also a chance to sell it a second time."

A second later he turned fully to Big Stank: "Didn't you know? True artifacts can be destroyed with enough effort, but they always reform themselves and come back again. Can I assume you'll want to buy the next one as well?"

In the short pause he sent a message to their consierge Ms. Wu:
<<I need to talk to Tony asap - this is a matter of great urgency. The hired help of your casion has sabotaged our auction and that might lead to severe repercussions both for us and the casino.>>

[Gilga]

Big Stank seems angry but also sharp and out of place. People look at him strangely, being alone with obvious gang colors. You know, Bobby, either you were setting me up to fail in your previous sentence, or you are now. If it is impossible to destroy the card, why did you suggest I threaten to destroy it in the first place?! "

"Nightmare can't steal my card if I destroy it. So you don't want me to do so... You are trying to sell me out to Nightmare!" it is not a question, not of blame. It is a statement! The paranoid and transparent Orc seems to believe in these words, and he is not even angry; his wheels start spinning trying to grasp the full implications of this scenario. While the boss is silent, Tiny comments Seriously Bobby, Nightmare?! "

Tammie answers right away >> Wow, that is highly unusual, I'll make sure Tony calls you as soon as possible.

[Jack_Spade]

"All I've told you is true: True artifacts reform - you just don't know when and where. But there are certain spirits out there that we know, who have a strong connection to the cards' creation. Those might be able to find it if it reforms again.

And I didn't tell you to threaten to destroy it. That's all your idea. I said you could get concessions in exchange for the card - which is what I thought you wanted it for.
I don't give a flying frag about your or Nightmare's well being. That ship sailed when you sold us out in your syndicate. Don't expect us to keep your hoop out of the frying pan.

I'm telling you all this only because you are the customer of our client now. And unlike you, SIS does look out for our associates interests."

Bobby looked the ork in the eyes: "My personal opinion: Those cards are bad news. They talk to their owner and most of those who kept onto them have found a bad end. That's the main reason we kept it in a bank instead on our person.
Destroying the card might prevent you from ending like that. Might. But the best way to avoid that, is to pass the card on to the next sucker and make some cash on the way. Which is precisely what we are doing for our customer.
Sucker."

[ Spoiler ]

Con: 5d6t5 3 [5d6t5=6, 1, 6, 6, 1]
Nice, just avoided a glitch

[Tecumseh]

Mato doesn't have to decide what to do. After collecting his pistol from security, he's not that far from the bank exit. His new cyberears can pick up some of the exchange that Bobby and Big Stank are having outside. That means Big Stank is distracted for the moment.

<<We could level with him>> Mato suggests. <<Tip him off to the plan.>>

Before they exit out out of the bank, Mato spins and pushes himself up against Gau to get right in the man's face.

"Big Stank wants to destroy the card," he says, although it's possible Gau already knows. "Do you have a decoy, or a way to prevent that from happening?"

[Gilga]

@Mato Gau nods with a sad expression "that is unfortunate but not unexpected." and he sighs "No decoys, and no balls to cheat a person like him. If you want some time, I can tell him that I need further study on the card and that there is not enough equipment here to finish the test. He'll be annoyed but it is not going to kill me or anything, and you'll get a couple of hours until he loses his patience. I'll need some concessions on your part for that route - because you know it involves a risk of damage. "[/color]

Big Stank judges Bobby and says "Well you only care about money, which is why I don't trust you."

[Jack_Spade]

"In what world do you live? We care about reputation, we care about our friends and contacts and we care about sustainability.
If I only cared about money, I would have kept my mouth shut and let you find out the hard way."
Bobby now was seriously pissed off.

"When was the last time you did something that had a positive influence on someone else's life? Caring about money and power is all your syndicate does."

[Tecumseh]

Mato grits his teeth. He needs to intervene before Bobby loses his cool and nukes Big Stank right there in the street, or vice versa.

"No, play it straight," he tells Gau. "But tell him its dangerous to own, but also dangerous to destroy. If I tell Stank that the wisest thing to do would be to let the card fall into the hands of his enemy, back me up."

With that he pushes out the door and makes a beeline to Bobby and Stank before a fight or a murder breaks out.

"Okay, we're here," he says, trying to physically insert himself between the two men before the argument can continue. "We have the card." He holds it up in a chromed cyberhand so that Stank can confirm its existence. "You can get Gau's professional opinion on it. But, let me assure you: you don't want to do what you think want to do."

A bit cryptic, but Mato is trying to cool the temperature. The good-cop, bad-cop routine only works if Mato can establish himself as a credible source. He decides that he can build on some of the things Bobby said.

"These cards are dangerous. They have an agenda of their own. They talk to you. They give you instructions, instructions that you want to follow. They'll tell you to run! hide! your friends want to take the card from you! don't let them! stop them!" He pauses for dramatic effect, trying to let it sink in. "I know, because I've heard them myself." He points to his ear.

"These fact is that these cards bring ruin wherever they go. They're a Faustian bargain, promising power and lucre in the present but leaving devastation in their wake. Destroy it if you want, but if you do you're passing up the rat trap of a lifetime. This card is how you bring down your rivals. You slip this into the trap and watch your adversaries lap it up. They're laughing, thinking they've got the better of you, but all the while they're drinking their doom. That's what I would pay 60K for."

[Gilga]

Big Stank says coldly, " Unless you sold me out to someone else, which is why you need the card intact. "
Then Mato exits the bank, and Big Stank regains his composure. "I am going to get a second opinion - and if that second opinion implies that this reforming stuff or card blowing up is dulldrek, I would assume you sold me out.
Tiny looks at him Bikers are getting close; got to GTFO. He looks at Gau and says Card is legit? and then he looks at Mato and says "My card, please." and extends his hand.

[Tecumseh]

Mato places the card in Big Stank's big hand.

"Gau," he says, prompting the talismonger to step forward and render a verdict.

[Gilga]

The large orc looks expectedly at Gau. That only mutters . GTFO? Bikers? Looking very pale. The card Gau, is it legit? Oh, yes... it is unlike anything I've ever seen. He offers Gau a ride, but the man refuses . "I'll find some other way." The huge troll and the slightly smaller but still massive orc flee the scene without a trace. Interestingly, several bikers go after them for no apparent reason and break formation speeding up the streets, hoping to catch the two combat bikes.

The rest stop by the entrance to the bank and throw some profane words at Mato. They do not seem very dangerous given the circumstances, but it is an unpleasant scene. Perhaps an orc in a suit seems more threatening to these fellows than an orc wearing pimped-up ganger colors, but maybe they just did not catch the two gangers.

[ Spoiler ]

There is no combat or anything here; either the police come or restore order, or you ignore them and get to the bank. Unless of course, you want to aggravate the situation.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby watched the ork drive off, more or less ignoring the humanis thugs. Their slurs were not particularly clever - not that he'd expect that of racists.

"Alright, let's get that money into the bank and then back to the hotel. We still have a conversation with Tony. If we do this right we might get some concessions out of him. I'm sure he won't like it if word gets out that the casino screws with you when you explicitly stay there to enjoy their protection.

Whatever happens next, at least we don't have to worry about rent this month."

[Tecumseh]

Mato is a little surprised to see Big Stank and Tiny retreat in the face of Humanis goons. He would have thought that Stank would hold his ground. But maybe there was wisdom in retreating. Stank might not have a SIN, or might have a Criminal SIN, and it doesn't look good to be duking it out with SINners in broad daylight. Stank's a long way from home, Mato thinks.

The Humanis squad shouts all sorts of nonsense at Mato and Bobby, variously disparaging their metatype ("tusker!", "race traitor!") and ethnic heritage ("better dead than red!"). Somewhat deprived of his humanity, Mato doesn't have enough of an ego to be offended, but one of the goons does hit close to the mark when he shouts, "Yer mama played wit elves!"

Mato's primary motivation isn't to defend his honor (nor his mother's, since hers is legitimately in question) but to keep Bobby from completely boiling over. Mato keeps himself positioned between Bobby and the goons while dialing up his infrasonic generator to create subtle, unsettling vibrations in the air. He just wants to usher the mob along, maybe encourage them to go home.

Once that's done, he huddles up with the SIS squad.

"The card is still in play," he reports to Raven and Tamarind, updating on anything they missed from their vantage points.

"Before we deal with the hotel, I think we should tail Big Stank. First to make sure the bikers don't smear him, although that seems unlikely. Second to see who he might be getting a second opinion from. If we can find that out, maybe we can incentivize them to offer advice that mirrors our own. We might yet be able to salvage Vala's op."

He turns to Raven and Bobby. "Raven, can your astral friend tail him back? Or Bobby, do you want to wing it after him?"

Then to Tamarind: "What do we have in place for surveillance? I don't suppose you had that bug we were using a tracker for the card hop onto Stank, did you?"

[Beta]

There hadn't been a lot that she could do about Humanis thugs going where they wanted, so Tamarind had kept her resources quiet. But when the combat bikes, along with Big Stank and Tiny, head off, trailed by some of the Humanis riders, that is worth risking breaking cover. Besides, the riders have other things to pay attention to.

She sends one of the Aunties to keep up for as long as the little Fly Eye can, and meanwhile starts working her delivery drones through the skyways to try and keep the bikes in sight. Then she thinks a bit more-- the others brought one of SIS's cars with them so don't need her for a ride. She pulls out of her parking spot down the street and starts trailing the bikes herself, relying on her drones to give her a target destination, hoping that she can take a shorter to close some distance without having to drive too quickly.

<<I'm starting to follow from a distance in my van, and trying to track with drones. The controlled skyways here make that more difficult, but if I can move them to where they can follow more easily I'll stop with the van.>>

And if she overtakes the Spy Eye she'll roll down a window and have it fly in.

[Gilga]

Tamarind finds it relatively easy to monitor the bikes because they are moving toward Touristville in an obvious pattern, so even if she misses a turn, she knows where they could go. Between her drones in the sky and her van quietly tailing the chase, she keeps up quite quickly, even if, at times, she lags behind a bit. Big Stank and Tiny are excellent bikers, but they seem to hold back to ensure their chasers stay in the race. Therefore, she is not entirely surprised that the chase ends with an ambush.

Once they enter friendly terrain, there seems to have been something planned because, in one narrow street with bad ariel cover, the bikers fall from their bikes and are then swarmed by a massive number (perhaps 30 or 50) of Crimson Crush gangers, most of them in their tweens. The next thing her drone spots is the roughed-up bikers being carried like trophies terrified and in their underwear around Redmond in a slow but very cheerful victory parade. They are so loud that her flying eye can hear the gang's songs chanting from hundreds of meters away. Their five bikes are now being ridden by about twenty tween-aged children slowly following the parade.


Tony calls Bobby shortly after the message from Tammie Wu. Apparently, he is not *sleeping* and he *does have a comlink number* when something urgent happens he just shares it on a need-to-know basis. It took her perhaps 15 minutes to get him to call.

>> Mr. Walker, Hi. Ms. Wu told me an extraordinary story. I want to get to the bottom of it. Can we meet?

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby replied: <<I'll be back at the casino shortly. And yes, reputations are at stake.>>

To Mato he said: "Nah, as much as I want to feel some air beneath my wings, this job is better done by machines. We need to think about who Big Stank trusts enough to take their word. Neither you nor I seem to fit that bill.
A spirit with the Suggestion power would have been what we need here. Can't be helped now.

Personally, I blame Vala for setting us up with spirits and an unreliable security arrangement. And unless Tony shows some goodwill here, I intend to let him take the fall here, by warning Lysander about the very contra productive arrangement they have going there."

He sighed: "Let's head back and see what this day brings next."

[Tecumseh]

Back in the privacy of the car, Mato asks, "Okay, Bobby, but what's the overall plan? To confront Tony in the murder-basement and complain to him bitterly?

"We're little doggies. We have to walk a fine line. There's a threshold of inconvenience associated with the amount of effort it would take to geek us and disappear our corpses. Given the murder-basement, I'm guessing that they have a well-established process for this and thus the threshold is not very high. Let us walk and talk delicately."

Mato looks to Raven to see if she can either back him up, or put a more diplomatic spin on Bobby's message.

[Jack_Spade]

"I'm aware. But one: We are not meeting in the murder basement. Two: I don't intend to accuse him personally, but I'll tell and show him what happened. We have a strong case that he owes us a refund for the suite - which was meant for us being able to safely conduct our business. Three: Disappearing us will only get him in hotter water - after all I put a deadman switch on a little info packet that will go out if I don't stop it.
Four: If it comes to the worst I'll take him with me and as many of his goons as I can. Use the distraction to get out."

Bobby looked grimmly determined while he drove.

[Tecumseh]

Mato laughs darkly.

"That's very noble of you.

"But, yes, I agree that we should not meet in the basement. There was an astringent, antiseptic quality in the air that made it feel like breathing a bottle of vaporized bleach."

Assured that Bobby is not on a course to surefire suicide, Mato divides the credstick between multiple accounts in increments of ¥12,000. It remains to be seen if they can collect Vala's portion of the payment, but at least they've been paid something.