Living in the Shadows: IC, Jan 8th-14th Options

[Vegas]

16:04:21 Friday, 12 January 2063 - 1400 Willow Heights Road #4, Tacoma, Seattle

Mac shook her head slightly as she continued to study the electronic schematics as Drift left them up. Everything was planned, everything had been laid out, up to the point that deMedici arrived. What would come next was anyone's guess, and she didn't like the prospect of going in with just her blade. Somehow it seemed almost, childish, compared to the weight of the gun that now satisfyingly rested on her hip.

She shoved her hands deep into her pockets, her fingers brushing over familiar items that calmed her ever so slightly, but she was wound tight and she knew it was going to start to show.

"Anyone mind if I grab a smoke outside?"

Mac needed to clear her head, and she wasn't going to be able to do that sitting inside the warehouse watching everyone else get ready for the unknown.

She kept her hands in her pockets until she stepped just outside the door, certain that Drift would have eyes on her from above, but hoping he wouldn't be able to see the way her hands shook as she pulled them from her pockets. She struggled to light her cigarette as the chill of the air leeched any warmth from her. Finally taking a deep drag, the tip of her clove glowing in the fading light, she exhaled and tried to let go of the tension that made it hard to breathe.

[grendel]

16:10:08 Friday, 12 January 2063 - 1400 Willow Heights Road #4, Tacoma, Seattle

Suda glanced over her shoulder as Mac excused herself, watching as she ducked out the door to satisfy her habit. The thin cat shaman turned to Kovacs.

"You should have disposed of her after the job. Or anytime, really. Time was, you would have just solved the problem. You're getting soft in your old age."

"How long will the ward be good for?" Kovacs didn't look at her as he asked the question, still manipulating the virtual construct.

"Two weeks. Both myself and Tristan are tuned through."

"Good."

Several more minutes passed in silence. Tristan was laying on one of the cots, his arm thrown over his eyes, while Drift was busy at the console again. Suda stretched, rolling her shoulders out. Kovacs collapsed the construct with a swift gesture, orienting himself in reality again before taking a step towards her.

"Suda," he asked, his voice the same cold mechanism as before, "how fast are you?"

The cat shaman smiled, resting her head against his chest. "Oh, Kovacs, don't you know nothing turns a girl on more than when you subtly threaten her life?"

When the samurai didn't respond, she sighed, dropping her arms and stepping back. "All right, I'll behave."

She watched him nod and turn away, headed towards the same door that Mac had used.

[Vegas]

16:13:57 Friday, 12 January 2063 - 1400 Willow Heights Road #4, Tacoma, Seattle

Mac had just lit her second cigarette when Kovacs came through the door, she tensed for an instant before she realized who it was and relaxed back against the wall of the warehouse, in a casual lean, one booted foot pressed firmly against the concrete and ready to bolt if necessary.

She took a long, deep drag from her cigarette and frowned slightly.

“If you’re out here to clear your head, we’re a lot worse off than I thought.”

She exhaled a long stream of smoke, feeling her control come back. Each second that ticked by and brought them closer to their impending meeting with de Medici made her fear start to transform to adrenaline, and adrenaline fueled her to do crazy things. Like climb into bed with assassins or contemplate working for the Vory. Then again so did loyalty. The corners of her lips turned up in a wry smile as she studied Kovacs in the fading light.

“Do we have a contingency in place if things go all kinds of sideways tonight?”

[grendel]

16:19:11 Friday, 12 January 2063 - 1400 Willow Heights Road #4, Tacoma, Seattle

Kovacs shook his head, his mouth twisting from the thin compressed line it held for a moment. His eyes traveled the length of the street, the warehouses, their roofs, and the airspace overhead. Mac thought for a moment that he was restless and expressing an operational form of paranoia. As she stood close, though, she could feel the energy radiating off him, and realized that underneath his carefully casual expression shimmered a bonfire of action barely held in check. Gently, carefully, she insinuated herself against him, listening with her body as the stress slowly evaporated from him. After a minute, she feels his arm slide around her waist.

"If it goes bad tonight, stick close. There's a fire exit on the North wall of the bar, with stairs to street level. If we can rendezvous with Drift, we'll do so. Otherwise we grab a ride back here to the warehouse, grab the go kits, and head out of town."

[Vegas]

16:23:09 Friday, 12 January 2063 - 1400 Willow Heights Road #4, Tacoma, Seattle

As she felt Kovacs relax, so did she, his arm around her waist steadying her as Mac nodded her understanding. She rested her forehead against his chest for a moment, finding solace in the smell of him, citrus and adrenaline mixed with the indescribable scent of cold. As she looked up, she took a small step back regretfully letting his arm slip from her waist.

She forced herself to compartmentalize everything she was feeling and focus on the job. Kovacs could see it in her eyes for an instant just before Mac took one last drag from what was remaining of her cigarette and crushed it out beneath her boot.

“Is there a dress code for tonight?”

A casino, how fitting. It’s like going home.

[grendel]

16:28:14 Friday, 12 January 2063 - 1400 Willow Heights Road #4, Tacoma, Seattle

"Your Actioneer and form-fit. There are enough variables in tonight's equations that I need you ready to handle things if they go south," replied Kovacs. He checked the mission clock running in the corner of his vision. "Suda and Tristan are leaving in ten minutes. We'll be thirty minutes behind them."

Mac nodded, checking her commlink by reflex. "I'll be ready."

The tall samurai nodded, his eyes once more scanning the street before he turned back to disappear into the warehouse.

[Vegas]

16:41:49 Friday, 12 January 2063 - 1400 Willow Heights Road #4, Tacoma, Seattle

Mac followed close to Kovacs as they stepped back inside the warehouse. She stopped just behind Drift at the bank of computer screens and glanced over the internal cameras. Gauging where she could change, she grabbed her needed gear and slipped behind one of the sheeted plastic walls, the slight privacy was welcomed as she slipped into unfamiliar clothing.

She focused on getting into her gear and getting comfortable with the feel and was only aware of the time passing as she heard Tristan and Suda leave and the warehouse door roll back down. She transferred a few essential items from various pockets into those of tonight's outfit, popping a piece of gum between her lips as she stepped back into the main space of the warehouse, joining Kovacs and Drift going over their own final preparations.

“Are we all going to be in each other’s heads tonight?” She tapped lightly against her earbuds that were already nestled in her ear.

[grendel]

16:58:13 Friday, 12 January 2063 - 1400 Willow Heights Road #4, Tacoma, Seattle

Kovacs nodded. "You're in the network already, Drift has the feeds piped to you. All you have to do is pull in what you want to see and listen to. Don't overdo it, though. It's easy to get distracted when you're not used to moving with a tactical overlay."

Mac frowned, fighting against her natural instinct to bristle at his suggestion. "All right, but show me what you've got first."

The tall samurai didn't argue, reaching through the network to manipulate her AR. Data sprang to life in a forty percent mask overlaying her vision and she blinked in surprise. Kovacs had the skeletal schematic for the casino in his central vision block, while four smaller windows occupied the corners. The lower left was a false-color IR/low-light overhead view of the warehouse block, remoted from what Mac assumed was one of Drift's surveillance drones. The upper left was flickering mosaic of images that shifted back and forth dizzyingly fast. It took a moment for her to realize that he was echoing Drift's display as the rigger sorted through his own information feeds. The upper right was a view from her eyes, while the lower right was Tristan's view.

Mac shook her head, banishing the four independent windows while shrinking the main one to a quarter view. "How do you stand it?" she asked.

"Years of practice," replied Kovacs, without a hint of irony in his voice. "One of my oldest mentors explained to me the power of the man/machine interface, and how to utilize the data to increase situational awareness. Most people don't really use their hardware. They find one or two settings that work for them, something tweaked a little from factory standard, and call it good. But the gear is capable of so much more."

"How often do you have multiple feeds coming in?" Mac suspected the answer but she had to ask.

"No days off," he said in reply. He motioned for her to follow and she did, realizing that Drift had the Roadmaster fired up and it was time to depart. To her surprise, they climbed into the front bucket seats of the heavy duty cargo van. Glancing behind her, she found the rigger strapped into a couch that replaced the front bench seat, his eyes closed as he ran the network. Once more the garage door scrolled up, and they disappeared into the growing darkness.

[Vegas]

17:09:47 Friday, 12 January 2063 - 1400 Willow Heights Road #4, Tacoma, Seattle

As Mac settled into the front seat, she remained fairly quiet as she manipulated various combinations of overlays until she found settings that didn't overwhelm her or make her want to throw up. She had to admit Kovacs was right, pulling in too many details was easily distracting as she noticed she was paying more attention to everything in the periphery of her vision and in her ear instead of her immediate surroundings.

Shaking it off she settled back against the seat and tired to remain calm as much as she could, her fingers drumming repetitive patterns against her knee as they drove on the only outward sign of her anxiety. She cast a sideways glance towards Kovacs and found him in his usual state, slightly distant, emotionally unreadable and yet primed with his next action held just in check. Mac found some level of comfort in their routine returning slightly to normal, just enough that it took the edge off and settled her down a notch.

"Anything in particular you need me to do tonight?" She asked softly as she stared out the front windshield.

[grendel]

17:14:37 Friday, 12 January 2063 - Northbound HWY 99 into Downtown, Seattle

"Keep your eyes and ears open," answered Kovacs. "Listen to what de Medici says, and more importantly, to what he doesn't say. Don't worry about context, or that you've never done this before, fresh perspective is important. We'll share notes afterwards."

The tall samurai lapsed into silence once more as the neon and glass spires of downtown Seattle loomed closer in the windscreen.

17:33:06 Friday, 12 January 2063 - Gates Undersound Hotel and Casino, Pier 69, Downtown, Seattle

The Gates Undersound Hotel and Casino was a relic of the past. Built in the early 40’s, it embodied the latest technology of the time as well as the ebullient neo-Japanese fusion design craze. Two decades later, though, it was surpassed in both by the sleeker, more subtle modern resorts. Careful upgrades kept the Gates in parity with the services offered, but continually hampered by the disquieting undertone of its age. To Mac it seemed a perfect setting for the meeting that would determine the next course of her life.

For all his silence, Kovacs seemed oddly relaxed as they strode through the parking garage entrance into the casino, his shoulders no longer tense and stiff even if his eyes still maintained their restless scan.

To Mac’s surprise, they were thoroughly ignored by everyone on the floor, a strange feeling for her since she was used to drawing at least a little attention from the men. It was only when she realized how she and Kovacs looked in their Actioneers that she understood why. Every corporate wageslave and manager saw the plain lines of their clothes and immediately dismissed them as support staff. They blended seamlessly and anonymously into the background.

Rounding the main thoroughfare past the craps and roulette tables, they turned up the wide staircase that led them to restaurant row. Mac saw Tristan parked at one of the slot machines, a basket of waffle fries in his lap. His eyes met hers in one of the chrome strips of the machine, and she thought he might have winked.

You’re clear. Four bodyguards passed me ten minutes ago, uncertain if they belong to the Johnson.

Kovacs replied to Tristan’s text with a double mic click. There wasn’t any sign of Suda.

A smaller staircase led the pair up from the ground floor to the mezzanine occupied by the Southern Star. Unlike the chrome and glass of the casino floor, the bar is done in brass and teak, accented by thick green sea-glass. Old fashioned prints of racing sloops and trimarans decorate the walls, along with a mix of Polynesian masks and tropical flowers. Kovacs brushed past the maître d, who glanced up with the briefest of welcomes before turning towards the next customer. Mac followed, her face tense and neutral, as they made space for themselves against the bar.

The back wall of the lounge shared the same floor to ceiling windows as the main restaurants of the casino did, the whole level projecting out into the dark waters of Puget Sound. Mac was uncertain what the designers hoped to accomplish with that particular architectural fiat, even with the powerful floodlights lining the windows, and the artificial reef structures, precious little sea life was visible beyond the reinforced Plexiglas.

Figures highlighted themselves red in Mac’s vision as Kovacs scanned the bar. It took her a minute, but she picked out the tells that allowed him to identify the bodyguards that were in place to watch over their principle while he conducted business. She shook her head minutely. Although her instincts in this milieu were working, they were tuned for the wrong signals. Kovacs rested his hand on her hip, and she glanced reflexively at him. A sliver of a smile showed through the gray emotionless mask he wore, and Mac took a calming breath. A few minutes ticked by as the ebb and flow of the bar swirled around them.

Johnson inbound, plus one.

Tristan included an icon with his text. Kovacs yawned.

Roger.

Ambient noise increased as he opened his mic to catch all the subsequent conversation.

Mac watched from the bar as de Medici and the bodyguard with him approached the maître d, holding a brief conversation before being shown to one of the larger circular tables next to the rear windows. He sat and opened up his attache case, withdrawing a slim piece of electronics that he set on the table.

She glanced over at Kovacs, who was calmly waiting, his eyes still scanning restlessly. The minutes dragged past. Finally he nodded to her, and they made their way across the bar to where de Medici was seated. The slim corporate shark smiled at their approach, glancing once at the designer commlink that graced his wrist.

"1755. You are as precisely punctual as always, Kovacs."

[Vegas]

17:56:23 Friday, 12 January 2063 - Gates Undersound Hotel and Casino, Pier 69, Downtown, Seattle

Walking into the aging casino brought Mac back to her childhood with a force that almost caused her to skip a step. She had made it a habit to avoid the casinos with clients in the past even though it meant giving up good money, it was just too hard to “go home.” Tonight was just adding insult to injury as she slowed her walk just slightly to trail a step behind Kovacs and get her head on straight.

As the pair made their way in from the parking garage, Mac scanned the floor, seeking out the classic tricks still in play to "trap" players inside the casino by disorientation. Looking about the rows of card games she quickly calculated who the main players were and she sussed out where the pit boss, table managers and floormen were stationed or congregating. She marked each of them for her own reference knowing they’d be the ones on the floor to possibly be outside the initial reach of any security teams de Medici may have turned.

As they waited at the bar, Kovacs' touch was reassuring for the moment before they joined de Medici at the booth, where it felt like they were descending into a proverbial snake pit. Her skin crawled at sight of the man before them, but her face showed only a cold neutrality as she minded what Kovacs had told her and she tried to read both what de Medici was about to say and what he might convey without words.

[grendel]

18:11:46 Friday, 12 January 2063 - Gates Undersound Hotel and Casino, Pier 69, Downtown, Seattle

Kovacs nodded, a simple gesture which managed to convey not only acknowledgement but also raw disdain. Mac suppressed a grin. For all his talk of simplicity, the tall samurai was no stranger to eloquent body language. de Medici brushed aside the implication with a small twist of his fingers.

"Yes, of course, to business."

The slim corporate operator unrolled a flat display panel onto the table, powering it up and manipulating the controls. Unlike a holographic display, this one gave the illusion of a third dimension stretching down into the table's surface. A grid of Seattle's streets glowed to life.

"At 0300 on Wednesday morning there will be an ‘event’. It will affect certain portions of the metroplex, mostly downtown and the waterfront areas of Tacoma. But it will also cause a total power interruption at this building here. This is one of three corporate offline data storage facilities maintained by Yamatetsu, the largest of the three. When the event occurs, I will be inside the building supervising a download of project data to one of the servers. Your job will be to enter and extract me. Afterwards, we will travel to this address where I have arranged follow on transportation."

"The Yamatetsu building is designed to fail secure should a power interruption last long enough for the building’s back-up generators to engage. Your entry will have to be forcible. I have procured a set of building blueprints and security laydown diagrams for you. These blueprints are accurate as of time of construction. I cannot access any more current data for fear of alerting the facility’s security personnel. Keep in mind that you run the same risk as well."

"I will be the only individual being transported, and I will have only my attaché case with me, no other cargo. After arriving at the drop off point, if anyone other than this individual is present, you must eliminate them. In all likelihood they will be plainclothes Yamatetsu security forces attempting to recover me for the corporation. There should be no delay in between extraction from the data storage facility and the transportation rendezvous.”

“Where in the building will you be located?” asked Kovacs. In response, the AR model rotated, the view zooming into what appeared to be a foyer with multiple workstations spaced around a curved wall that overlooked the server farm.

“These are the central data entry work stations. I will be located there while I supervise the download of project data.” de Medici helpfully highlighted the area and spangled it with several UMS (meta)human icons.

"Two hundred fifty thousand nuyen for the team, half up front." The money amount took a second to register with Mac, Kovacs' tone was as bland as if he were discussing the weather.

"One seventy five," countered de Medici. "I've done all the work for you, all you have to do is get in and pull me out."

Kovacs shook his head. "If it were a milk run, you would have contracted someone cheaper. You're anticipating a vicious security response because you're taking corporate property with you. You wanted the best bad enough to use her life as leverage. But the best doesn't come cheap. Two hundred."

de Medici frowned, rolling the numbers through his mind. "All right, two hundred."

Reaching into his attache case, he passed four certified credsticks to Kovacs, who covered them casually with his hand.

[Vegas]

18:19:22 Friday, 12 January 2063 - Gates Undersound Hotel and Casino, Pier 69, Downtown, Seattle

Mac studied the pair of men who sat across from them in the booth and tried to look for the cracks in their facades, their so called tells as de Medici laid out the job and she tried to ferret out the lies from the truth.

Trying to read de Medici was like trying to read a piece of honed steel, he was nearly devoid of any physical tells and his practiced voice left her with only assumptions about what he was leaving out of the details and his plans.

His bodyguard however spoke vague volumes. Subtle glances and physical tics were his giveaways of an action just held in check, much the way her mentor operated. But what the trigger would be exactly, Mac was left unsure, and that ratcheted up her alertness and put her slightly more on edge.

Up to this point, Mac had been able to maintain her own facade that she presented to de Medici, devoid of any betrayal of her emotions or feelings that were just beneath the surface. When she was reminded of how her life was being casually used as leverage to put them all in this situation, it was enough to make her eyes narrow slightly and her jawline to tighten in anger. She forced herself to bite her tongue for the time being.

She watched the money change hands, the final step that would seal their fates in a short five days.

Five. Days.

Keep it together girl, just a little while longer.

Her eyes moved from de Medici to his bodyguard to the reflections of the patrons at the bar in the glass behind the corporate shark, grateful that Kovacs remained relaxed but at the ready beside her.

[grendel]

18:28:03 Friday, 12 January 2063 - Gates Undersound Hotel and Casino, Pier 69, Downtown, Seattle

de Medici closed his attache case, his gaze finding first Mac, then Kovacs.

"Anything else? Care to join me for a drink?"

Kovacs stood. "See you Wednesday morning."

Mac was right behind him, her movements a tad less graceful than she liked simply due to the adrenaline boiling through her blood. Whatever the company man's thoughts were, his mask of bland professionalism was firmly back in place. She couldn't read a thing through the opaque expression as she and Kovacs swept past on their way out of the bar.

Fall back in echelon to the garage.

Mac glanced at Kovacs, the tall samurai gesturing her towards a different path than the one they entered on. Climbing two flights of stairs, they emerged into the dim chill of the parking garage. Across the way to their right, she saw Tristan and Suda exit the stairs next to the main elevators. Together the four of them climbed aboard Drift's Roadmaster.

"It's a trap," said Tristan as the rigger pulled out onto the city streets.

[Vegas]

18:32:41 Friday, 12 January 2063 - Gates Undersound Hotel and Casino, Pier 69, Downtown, Seattle

Mac found herself nodding to Tristan’s short but poignant assessment without even really meaning to, and stopped herself. She had planned to keep her thoughts on their meeting with de Medici close to the vest until there was a point in the discussion of the meet that she felt confident enough to chime in. However, a few things had definitely raised her concern during their short conversation, some of which she preferred to discuss with Kovacs alone.

[grendel]

18:39:54 Friday, 12 January 2063 - Southbound HWY 99 out of Downtown, Seattle

Traffic on the main thoroughfare was thick, the evening rush still choking the streets. The Roadmaster crawled through the sea of red brake lights, its onboard systems competent enough to maintain the distance from the vehicle in front of it that Drift could devote the majority of his attention to the discussion at hand.

Well, yeah, duh, he answered Tristan through the team's AR connection. Question is, which part of the job is the trap?

"Based upon his aura, he was telling the truth although that's not a completely reliable indicator," offered Suda. "I'm willing to bet that he's been trained in how to maintain steady emotions so as not to give anything away via Astral."

"The extraction part is probably real. Why put himself in jeopardy if all he wanted to do was kill us? I'll bet it's the part that comes after that's the double cross." Tristan rummaged through one of the utility lockers in back before coming out with a handful of individually wrapped granola bars. He offered one to Suda, who declined, and one to Mac, who accepted although more for having something to do with her hands than out of actual hunger.

"That will be our primary planning assumption," said Kovacs, his voice remote. "Drift, I want surveillance on that building soonest. Tristan, work the vectors for the drop off. We may need to set some counter-sniper, counter-assault charges. Suda, your usual voodoo if you would, please."

[Vegas]

18:45:01 Friday, 12 January 2063 - Southbound HWY 99 out of Downtown, Seattle

Mac absentmindedly flipped the granola bar in her hand for a few moments before pocketing it and offering one of the few things she thought she could actually bring to the table at this point.

“I might have a possible way to leverage for information from the inside. Getting a better idea of a more up-to-date security plan for inside the storage center would be helpful, no?” She paused for a second, weighing if she really wanted to cross this bridge and just how far she would be willing to go to get the information.

“I know of a guy, a Lieutenant in corp security for Yamatetsu. I don’t know if he’s aligned with de Medici, if he’s one of the rank and file or if he’s someone we could use if the right.. pressure were to be applied.”

She shot Kovacs a slightly telling glance, one that let him know exactly what type of “connection” this would be to her.

“I’m willing to make the call if it’s an avenue we even want to explore. If there’s too much potential to raise red flags, I won’t even pursue it. I just figured if it came from someone inside security already…”

[grendel]

18:57:01 Friday, 12 January 2063 - Southbound I5 Downtown into Tacoma, Seattle

Kovacs glanced at Tristan, who shrugged. "It's a risk, we don't know who he knows."

Who he knows might prove invaluable to us, though, interjected Drift.

"Set it up," Kovacs decided, nodding at Mac. "Let us know what kind of support you'll need for the meeting."

Mac nodded, wondering herself what kind of support she might need. Tristan's commlink buzzed and he turned away to answer it. The conversation was brief and he glanced towards Kovacs.

"How much?" asked the tall street sam.

"Plus one fifty," replied the swordsman.

Kovacs gave a sharp nod. "Make the buy."

Mac realized that it must be Demetria on the phone, responding to the shopping list that she and Tristan had dropped off earlier. Tristan closed the line.

"Ready by Tuesday morning."

"Good," was all Kovacs said, lapsing once more into brooding silence.

[Vegas]

19:05:35 Friday, 12 January 2063 - Southbound I5 Downtown into Tacoma, Seattle

Mac sunk into the seat as Drift pointed the Roadmaster back towards the warehouse. She grew extra quiet as she processed her plans to lay the perfect trap for her mark. She was starting to tread into familiar territory, but instead of finding comfort in it, it stirred up a whole other set of feelings that she wasn't quite prepared for. Too much had changed in such a short amount of time.

"I'll put my part in motion when we get back to the warehouse. Drift, let's talk tech when we get back and the ball is rolling."

She wrung her hands as she thought more about the situation and why the thought of slipping back into her profession was making her suddenly so uncomfortable. She popped a piece of gum and stole a furtive glance at Kovacs before watching the city fly by outside the window.

[grendel]

19:08:26 Friday, 12 January 2063 - Southbound I5 Downtown into Tacoma, Seattle

You got it, replied Drift over the network. Then, surveillance is online.

Kovacs nodded wordlessly, and several data streams became available in the AR for Mac. Reading the datatags, the selected the overhead orbit, ghosting it into a corner of her vision at a fifty percent mask. The building looked unremarkable, an anonymous block of concrete, plastic, and mirrored glass surrounded by a thin copse of vegetation before the inevitable fenceline. She glanced sidelong at Kovacs, in time to catch the sliver of a smile cross his lips. She desperately wanted to ask him several questions, but not in mixed company.

"Might have an idea what the event our Johnson is referring to," said Kovacs. More data flowed into the network, although Mac guessed that this was from an outside researcher rather than the street sam himself. Possibly Isomer, although that would be quick work for even a veteran decker like him.

NYSE set to debut new, faster host system Wednesday morning.

Tristan whistled, long and low. "Think he's going to try another nanosecond buyout?"

[Vegas]

19:08:26 Friday, 12 January 2063 - 1400 Willow Heights Road #4, Tacoma, Seattlee

Mac was still busy in mostly her own headspace, trying to craft the perfect honeytrap for her potential resource when Tristan's words registered.

"Wait, you said another? You mean he's done this before?"

She chewed on her lip for a moment while she let this process.

"So either it didn't work a planned or he got away with it the first time and he just didn't get caught..."

Or he's a greedy son of a bitch who is out to get his, no matter the cost...Either way, he's dangerous.

Mac shook her head, not liking either possibility as the large garage door slowly rolled upward in front of them upon their return to the warehouse. She took her time getting out of the Roadmaster, winding her way back to the piles of her gear and changing back into street clothes before taking care of her form fit before putting that away as well.

She walked back out to the main portion of the space, finding Drift seated behind his consoles and Kovacs just to his right, discussing things in quiet, terse tones.

"Give me a minute to make this call and put this piece in motion and we can talk details of what it might take to make it happen."

She waited until she got the silent nod from Kovacs, feeling his eyes on her as she slipped to a quieter corner of the warehouse and dialed the burner number Frankie had given her.

She waited as it rang, a total of five times before a cool, mechanical electronic voice answered and confirmed the number she had dialed and nothing more. Waiting for the tone, she felt herself slipping back into familiar territory, doing the things she was good at, and that level of comfort could be heard in her voice as she left her message.

"Hi, my name is Scarlett, Paige mentioned you were looking for a new toy. I'd love to know the kind of games you're into and what exactly you're looking for. I have a feeling I might have just what you need. Give me a call, you've got my number."

Ending the call she smirked slightly at the game she was playing and walked back towards Drift and Kovacs while she waited to see if the call would ever come.

[grendel]

19:29:36 Friday, 12 January 2063 - 1400 Willow Heights Road #4, Tacoma, Seattle

Drift shook his head. "Not this Johnson. The nanosecond buyout happened back in 2033, when Damien Knight used a series of ultrafast stock manipulations to acquire 22 percent of Ares Macrotechnology. The same percentage owned by then-CEO Leonard Aurelius." He turned back to include Tristan and Kovacs in the conversation. "I thought afterwards the stock exchanges had monitoring installed to make sure no one else took advantage of that loophole."

"They did," confirmed Kovacs, "but he's not going after control of the corporation. He's extracting, remember? He's going to pull data from the corp's storage facility and then sabotage them under cover of a stock buyout. While they're busy scrambling to contain the damage, he'll disappear discretely and sell their secrets to the highest bidder in the shadows."

Tristan frowned. "That equation fits the variables, but there's something here that doesn't fit. He said the event is going to affect more than just the corporation, he talked about a larger geographic area. That seems like imprecise language if the distraction he's planning revolves around a hostile threat to corporate stock."

The three of them lapsed back into brooding silence.

[Vegas]

19:47:03 Friday, 12 January 2063 - 1400 Willow Heights Road #4, Tacoma, Seattle

Mac’s eyes moved over the trio that surrounded her where she had grabbed a seat, her knees bouncing in a silent staccato rhythm that matched the riot of thoughts running through her head. She fished out a piece of bubblegum from a pocket and popped it into her mouth, the sickening artificial cherry flavor and the sugar rushing over her tongue was calming for an instant as she picked apart their meeting with de Medici in her head one more time before she decided to share her thoughts.

“So we’re all in agreement that he’s likely to have his point of drop-off be the point where he’s going to try to frag us over right?” If we make it that far that is. She raised her brow pointedly as the three of them slowly came out of their brooding silences to pay at least a little attention to her and so she kept talking.

“And he’s already given us the shoot-everyone-else-on-sight order which feels like he’s trying to pit us against someone else involved. We dispose of each other and he disappears into the night kind of deal. But here’s the thing that’s bugging me, he wanted you,” Mac paused for a second and cast her eyes on Kovacs to emphasize her point before she continued.

“He wanted your team to be the extraction team. If he’s really trying to leave with company property with him he trusts you enough to either get him out, or that you’ll… we’ll die trying to accomplish that. Either way he can be in the clear but like Tristan said, his ‘event’ is bigger than just the Yamatetsu data center and seems like too big of a distraction to have to orchestrate just to get him out.”

She stopped again as she was trying to put into words what seemed to make connections and sense in her head. Call it her intuition, her street smarts or just her gut, either way she took a breath and he turned all of her attention to Drift for an moment.

“Can you pull up a map that includes Downtown, the data center and Tacoma’s waterfront?”

While Drift made quick work of the request and the requested map sprung to life in front of them, she stole a glance at Kovacs and the look on his face and the slightest hint of a smile encouraged her to keep going with her thought process.

“So if his forcible extraction is just our part of the plan, who’s to say he didn’t hire another team like us only with a different specialty to run a second piece of his plan in tandem with him getting out. What if the piece of corporate property isn’t coming from the data center we’re getting him out of?”

Mac’s eyes went back to the map and studied the large portions of the city de Medici had eluded to and shook her head. The area was huge.

“His ‘event’ could create chaos and he’s going to manipulate it to his every advantage.”

[grendel]

19:55:47 Friday, 12 January 2063 - 1400 Willow Heights Road #4, Tacoma, Seattle

"Not just a pretty face after all," mused Suda, folding herself into a seated lotus amidst the group. She picked daintily at the second half of her sandwich. "She's right, though. Our Mr. Johnson seems the type to run multiple operations, both to ensure success of the primary mission as well as distraction."

She pinned Kovacs with a look while she swallowed her bite of sandwich. "We should put the word out and see if any of our fixers shopped a job or know who might have shopped it. At least we might garner some context about the event as well as his endstate goal."

Kovacs glanced at Tristan, who nodded. Suda continued before he could speak, though, reaching in with her hand to manipulate the shared data construct.

"Our target building has moderate astral security, with a pair of wards located inside. One will undoubtedly be the security command center, while the other is most likely the main power junction and back-up generator. They have a security spirit on hand, roving throughout the building. I didn't stay long enough to ascertain whether it made any roof patrols, but I doubt it. I suspect they also have a fiber optic surveillance network but again, I didn't loiter long enough to prove or disprove that assumption."

By this time, Drift had filled in the false color image with composite surveillance from his overhead drone, a real time data feed available in a window as well. Kovacs spun the building until the front door was visible, then zoomed in on the warning plaques mounted to the exterior. Tristan caught the implication underlying the admonition about no personal electronic devices or recording media inside.

"Aha. Faraday cage."

"Makes sense for a corporate data center, they wouldn't want to run the risk of someone broadcasting out or in." Kovacs was sifting data not visible to anyone else.

"You're going to have to be quick, it's unlikely that the allowable variances are more than half a percent." Drift seemed to know what Kovacs was working towards. Mac opened her mouth to ask, but was interrupted by the ring of her commlink.

[Vegas]

19:59:17 Friday, 12 January 2063 - 1400 Willow Heights Road #4, Tacoma, Seattle

Mac fought the childish urge to flip Suda off knowing it wouldn't help the situation no matter how nice it might feel in the moment. Even with her friction with the shaman, she listened to her breakdown of magical security at the data center filing it away for the future.

She still felt like she was barely treading water when it came to the team, their long standing years together obvious as each one of them easily anticipated the thoughts and moves of the other and left her more often with more questions than answers. Shaking it off she impulsively chewed her lower lip as her commlink vibrated with the incoming call and the number came up blocked in her vision.

“Sorry I need to take this, could be the guy I reached out to.”

She gestured to her commlink as she stood and stepped out of the immediate range of the rest of the team so they could continue plotting and discussing out of range of her mic. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before thumbing a pattern on her commlink to answer the call.

A full and sultry purr slipped from her lips with a single word as the call connected.

“Hello?”