IC : STARDUST, In-Character thread for Stardust Options

[Shadow]

Frosty and Worm

[ Spoiler ]

Gun waves his hand negativly, "never on the job. Why do you think they may try to hurt you? How many are there, and how heavily armed do you think they are?"

[Slacker]

Frosty and Gun:

[ Spoiler ]

Wormwood cautiously approached Mr. Stone's house. At the door he was already prepare to pull the trigger on his briefcase to lay down some suppressing fire if need be. When the Johnson answered the door, and not a hit team, he was at leasr partially reassured.
As they entered the kitchen and Mr. Stone offers him a drink, he shakes his head to indicate a negative on the offered drink, not even bothering to repeat the obvious reason Gun had already given.
In a calm voice, Wormwood says "We can handle this so there is no need to worry. Now, as my colleague said, we need the details, and we'll need them as concise as possible so we can have the time to prepare properly."
"Besides the specifics on your expected guests, just where do you plan to meet them? I can be setting up surveillance there while you give us the details." As he is saying this, Wormwood is already setting up one micro-recorder to watch the kitchen door to the outside.
At least this isn't a trap, but I hate dealing with frazzled people. Hopefully, a drink will help him calm down, but I'm going to have to make sure he doesn't have too much. Even if these guys he's expecting aren't looking for trouble, it could easily become problematic if the Johnson's tanked.

[FrostyNSO]

Ludi, Hank, Gunther, and Wormwood

[ Spoiler ]

Hank pulls the van up to Stone's residence smoothly but with urgence, quickly hopping out after setting the parking brake. He resists the urge to help Ludi along, instead allowing her to carry her own weight, and hopefully not let on that she's been injured. Moving to take up a covering position, just to the side and behind the Russian, Hank whispers in her ear: "Cool your jets with this fragger. Lets not give him any reason to put a few more holes in ya."

The two approach the front door, Ludi pounding it with a solid knock and slipping off to the side in order to get out of the doorway if something "not nice" comes out, but trying not to appear hostile either.

Meanwhile, inside: Wormwod attempts to calm Stone. He and Gun were professionals, and Stone was in good hands. After assurances were made, the man gradually relaxed a bit. Maybe it was the alcohol, but, maybe not. With Stone calmed, it was time to find out more details about what was going on, but at that moment:

The knock on the door sounded from the livingroom. The group fell silent for a moment...

[Shadow]

Gun tensed at the sound of the door.

"Worm, get him in the living room and put him behind something he can use for cover if necessary. I'll get the door."

Gun carefully adjusted his coat and headed for the front door. He didn't need to check himself, he knew where every knife was and exactly how sharp it was.

He assumed Stone did want to talk to these people and was just worried that the talking might turn into shooting. He checked the monitor to the outside carefully examining the team. One of them looked hurt, but she could just be faking it.

He opened the door an inch. His foot, and right side of his body was braced against the door so if they tried to kick it in it would be like kicking him, not an easy proposition.

"Can I help you?" He said in his clearest voice. The one he used when enforcing for the mob. It usually meant "go the hell away".

[Slacker]

Once more irritated by the necessity for speed, Wormwood says "Sacrebleu, sounds like we're out of time."

As Gun rushes off to the door, Wormwood says "Try to stall them a moment so I can set up the cameras."

Grabbing Mr. Stone's arm, he rushes him into the living room, saying "Come on. We need to get you in position."

Entering the living room, he tells Mr. Stone to stand behind the armchair. Reaching above his head, Wormwood places one camera atop the door frame.
Next he dashed around the room closing all of the drapes to protect against prying eyes. As he was doing this he told Mr. Stone "Everything should be fine, but if I give you the signal, duck behind that chair to minimize your exposure."

Finishing with the curtains, he quickly returned to the doorway to await the approach of Gun and Mr. Stone's guests.

[Mister Juan]

As Gunther opened the door, Ludmila had a slight moment of hesitation. The man's face seemed strangely familiar. She had already seen some of Stone's men, and he didn't strike her as one of them. She could feel Hank tensing up behind her: the russian had one firey temper and she could flip at any second. She remembered his words: "Cool your jets with this fragger".

On a better day, she would have probably pounded a few hits in him, just to set things straight and let him know where he was in her personal food chain. The four bandages Hank had doctored were still pretty fresh. She opted for diplomacy; at least, by her book.

She looked Gunther straight in the eyes, giving him a smile smirk as she leaned slightly on the door, getting closer to him. All her movements were slow; no need to get the guy nervous.

"I see Rick's got himself some new blood to cover him. Good. The ones he usualy has lying around aren't really that good."

She was calm. Collected. After what she had faced today, she felt like nothing could touch her. Very slowly, she reached into her pant's pocket and took the fresh new pack of cigarette she had just bought. Pulling one from the pack with her mouth, she spoke again, her thick russian accent coming clear thru.

"Don't worry; we're not here to pop one in your new employer. If we wanted him dead, he'd already be. Plus," she light her cigarette, "I filled enough black bags for today."

She took a long drag.

"So.... you letting us in? Or shouldwe start growing roots?"

[FrostyNSO]

Ludi, Hank, Wormwood, and Gun

[ Spoiler ]

"Let them in." Stone ordered reluctantly. "Now what do you have for me?" he asked Ludi, being careful to remain situated behind the chair as Wormwood had told him to.

[Mister Juan]

As Ludmila saw Stone half hidden by the couch, she couldn't help herself but smile.

"Relax Rick."

She extended her right arm forward, inviting him to grab a cigarette from her pack.

"Let's just say that things didn't go quite as it was planned. The four man element you had hired is now down to two..."

Her eyes started darting around the room, looking for an ashtray. Beside Stone, and the doorman, another man was present. Once again, he didn't strike him as one of Stone's usual goon.

"So... where's your usual security detail? This isn't the three men team you usualy have at your house."

Picking a couch at random she sat down. The woman seemed totaly comfortable, as if she controled every single element in the room.

"Get me a display device and I'll be happy to show you everything we have concerning the case. Seeing as how we are both still alive, I'm inclined to trust you. It is possible, after all, that we were all used in this little scheme."

She took a long drag from the cigarette.

"And we know who killed Kote."

[FrostyNSO]

Ludi, Hank, Wormwood, and Gun

[ Spoiler ]

Stone waved his hand nervously to refuse the cigarette. "The cyberterm over there," Stone motioned to the room's corner. The tortoise was on a a sparse, tidy computer desk, "You can use it to display what you have." He paused to collect his thoughts. He was obviously quite worried, but tried to hide it. "My normal security detail is on assignment elsewhere at the moment, and one member has been out sick for the past few days...You said you know who killed Kote. So tell me why it's your two faces plastered all over the news lately. Who really did it?" Stone anxiously asked with a gleam of sarcasm.

[Mister Juan]

Ludmila had started to make her way toward the terminal when Stone passed his remark. She froze on the spot, her cheeks getting flushed with anger.

"Why you little..." she turned around. If her eyes could have killed, Stone would have been dead 100 times before hitting the ground.

"The reason why we're taking all the heat for this is because it was a setup: you have a leak in your security detail."

She took a few steps toward him.

"We were able to trace the killer magically: he's one of yours. Does Lars rings any bells?"

Before Stone could react, she went over the terminal, pulling a fiber optic connection cable and jacking in. She started loading into Stone's terminal all the data they had gathered so far: all her notes concerning the affair, all the pictures she had taken, the content of Kote's harddrive, the pictures of her house, her dead body, those of Charles at the meeting, those of Stone's house from the exterior, those of him driving away with some man... Everything...

"There..." she unplugged herself "it's everything. All the rumors about you, Kote, Charles. His PD file, etc..."

She started lighting another cigarette.

"Now, what I want to know is: why didn't we find anything on Cain, at all, at Kote's? Why did you bail out Charles? Why was Kote under your management on one contract, and under his, on another? Why did you go thru Charles to get to us? And how the frag in hell are you still here and he's in jail while the cops have all our mug shots from the meet?"

She gave a quick look to Wormwood and Gunther.

"You guys have no idea what fragging mess you just walked in. I hope you're getting a good pay, because we sure as hell aren't."

[FrostyNSO]

Ludi, Hank, Wormwood, and Gun

[ Spoiler ]

With the mention of Lars, Stone's face turned a sickly pale. He grabbed the chair as if to hold himself up and looked blankly at the floor with his mouth hanging open. Trying to compose himself, he put together a response of sorts.

"Lars is my man out sick." Stone began. "If what you're saying is true, then I guess I shouldn't be expecting him back." After Ludi showed all the information she had gathered, Stone seemed more able to answer her questions. "I should like to see some hard evidence to support your claim against Lars, still. I don't know why you didn't find anything on Cain. Kote told me that this guy had been harassing her. That's why I hired you." Stone stopped for a moment. "I'm not sure what you're asking concerning Charles' bail...his drug problem? In any case, I worked through him to contact you guys because I am a busy man. I can't be everywhere at once, and I can't do everthing at once. Do you think when you get hired for your kind of work you're always meeting the single point of contact? I'm sorry, but I thought you understood this." Stone added with the veiled arrogance Ludi had grown accustomed to in her dealings with him. "Kote is only under contract with me. I don't know what Charles was trying to do, but how can you prove to me that he didn't hire you to remove Kote? Kote wouldn't sign behind my back, she must have refused, and that is why he hired you, and why he is in jail now."

[Mister Juan]

All she wanted to do was pound his head in the wall until his skull broke loose. But... that would not have been a wise choice.

"If Charles had hired us, do you believe that we'd stick around? Would we still be running around trying to catch Kote's killer? Did you ever stop to think about that?"

She blew smoke in his general direction.

"Apparently not. Listen, if we were under Charles' employ, he would have had us frag you: and so, you wouldn't be here right now. Here is the deal: if you want us to keep with the investigation, we'd like to get paid. It's been over a week and we haven't seen a dime. If you want us off the case, pay us what you owe us and you'll never see us again. But if you really want to clear your name and get who fragged with you, then give us what we need and we'll go after Lars."

[Shadow]

Gun was a little weary of the russian woman, she seemed prone to fits of anger. She also seemed familiar, like he had met her before.

He hung back and let the two runners enter before him. Once in the living room he stayed close to the exit, ready to spring behind cover if needed. When the woman became agitated he let a slim throwing knife drop into his hand from its concealed position in his cuff.

"Lets try to stay calm here people. No need to shout."

[FrostyNSO]

Hank, Ludi, Worm, and Gun

[ Spoiler ]

Stone thought hard for a moment. "I had Kote insured." He began. "She doesn't have any family to speak of, but if you can bring her killer to justice..." Trailing off for a moment, Stone snapped right back. "I'll pay you 20k a piece, provided these men here go with you." He motioned to Worm and Gunther. "Pay will be the same all around. Get Lars to talk. Then make sure he has an accident."

[Mister Juan]

A smile smirk of satisfaction creeped on Ludmila's face. Since she had arrived, she had been in quite a bitter mood. For the first time in about a week, she was content.

"As long we still get the nuyens you already owe us, then I'd say you have a deal."

She approached Stone, keeping her hands well spread from her body.

"And as much as it might matter.... I'm sorry about Kote. My guess is Charles probably had the whole thing planned in advance. Some of the evidence we came across might even had been planted. Honestly, there could be a million reason why all this happened."

"But now" her eyes seemed to darken "I just want to get the fragger who did that to Kote."

Ludmila was in motion to take a seat when she stopped, as if she remembered something.

"By the way... we need what ever information you can give us on Keller. I believe there might be a connection between both murder... or at least, someone is trying to make us believe there is one"

[FrostyNSO]

Hank, Ludi, Worm, and Gun

[ Spoiler ]

When Ludi mentioned the nuyen she was owed, Stone interjected. "The job was to protect Kote, which you did not accomplish. Now I am offering you a new job."
Hank leaned over towards Ludi and whispered. "The sad part is he's right. Maybe we could bump up the pricetag on this job though." He suggested.
"Anne Keller was a long time ago." Stone continued. "I don't know what I could provide you that would be of much use. I've had many different bodyguards since that time."

[Mister Juan]

As Ludmila sat on an empty couch, she crossed one of her legs and leaned forward toward Stone.

"The job was to protect Kote, and to investigate Cain: which we have been actively doing for the past week"

[FrostyNSO]

"The investigation was to facilitate her protection, which was the final goal. You didn't fulfill your part of the contract." Stone's abrasive side clicked in suddenly. "Besides, was killing that cop part of your investigation?" He smiled cruelly.

[Mister Juan]

For a second, it seemed as if Ludmila was about to lunge toward Stone. All her muscles tensed up in the blink of an eye; her eyes burning with anger and her knuckles a deadly white.

If she had been closer, Stone would have gotten it. The mention of this morning's shooting gave her the impression that her abdomen was on fire, the fresh wounds reminding her of the price this mission was starting to cost her.

She turned her look to the crisp clean carpet, cursing and mumbling to herself in russian. The mention of the cop had also reminded her of something else: she would have to call Miki. Alec was under his pay, and had turned. It was quite possible that he had already sold out all his mob connections for a way out. Alec's coat turning was also partly her fault... and she would have to correct it on her own... which would probably mean kill him.

Looking back at Stone's smiling mug, all she could think of was how good it would feel to punch him until his face caved in.

After all that, she could only utter a single word.

"...........Fine."

[Shadow]

"No, not fine. This is not part of what we negotiated Mr. Stone." The sudden, but flat interjection in from Guns litely accented italian seemed to overright all other conversation.

"We need to 're-negotiate' our deal. You want me to act as there bodyguards, and to assist in the investigation of a murder, with the Star involved, I will need a lot more than 20k. 30 will start it and I want half now. It seems you have some issues with paying your employees."

The dead pan look, and the knife resting in his palm, lent a deadly seriousness to his statement.

[Slacker]

As Ludmilla and Hank entered the living room, he could see fire behind Ludmila's eyes.
If there's going to be trouble, she's going to be the one to bring it, he thought to himself.

At least she started conversing with Mr. Stone with an outward calm. However, the mention of lost members of their team did not put him at ease. Nor did Mr. Stone's mention of their faces being plastered all over the news.
Wormwood never watches the news because its all bogus propaganda put out by the megacorps and governments little better than the corps. So he hadn't seen any of it, but it certainly didn't sound like they had been acting like professionals. What kind of idiots get their face plastered on the trid?

Ludmilla's outburst in reaction to Mr. Stone distracted him from such thoughts as he tensed up and refocused himself on the job at hand.
As she loaded up the data on the terminal, he caught a few glimpses of it. But between watching her and Hank's movements, he didn't catch much. None of my business anyways. I'm here to protect the Johnson. If he wants me to help with that drek, he's gonna have to pay alot more than he's done so far.
The fact that Ludmila's address to Wormwood and Gunther mirrored his own thoughts so completely unsettled him quite a bit, but he refused to let it show in front of her.

Well really, the whole conversation was making him unease, especially the talk of killing a cop. This kind of thing could bring too much attention with it. They might hear of this and be able to find me. Can I risk that, even for 20k?

He had to agree with Gun here. 20k just wasn't looking like enough for this job.

Aloud, he said "First off, I don't like this situation. Not one bit. It is wholly unprofessional with the 'Star and trid news involved. Before I agree to anything I'm going to need a look at that data she just gave you."
With a gesture towards Gun "And like my associate here, I just don't see 20k as enough to get involved with this kind of heat."

"A second issue, is the job you've already hired us for. I'm assuming this would be in lieu of that, rather than in addition, but I'd you to clarify that."

[Mister Juan]

Gently, Ludmila took the cigarette to her lips. Her brief flash of anger disappeared: Stone's henchmen were last minutes hire. They had no idea what mess they had just walked in. But Ludmila did know that, without them, running this thing thru to the end would be almost impossible. Plus... the pay wasn't all that bad. The only thing she regretted was the shootout at the train station. Apparently, it had been all over the news, and one of the three cops she had taken down was obviously dead. She knew it... his badge was in her pocket.

"Yea Rick; why don't you explain to these two fine men how you had a major leak in your entourage, which caused the meeting to be apparently taped"

[FrostyNSO]

Stone ignores the russian's comment, and instead focuses on Wormwood and Gunther. Attempting to conceal his concern, Stone's eyes dart nervously to the dikoted knife in Gun's palm. "Rest assured, you will be paid for your services here tonight. What I am offering is in addition." Stone glances with disdain towards the russian for a moment before returning to Worm and Gunther. "...and be assured, I have no problems with paying my employees so long as they complete the job they were hired for. Twenty a piece, certified cred, with ten up front. In addition, I place you on my company's payroll as field photographers...1 year's pay...paid in a single payment of course, for an additional twelve-thousand." After making his offer, Stone awaits a reply.

[Slacker]

Still keeping an eye on the other three runners in the room, Wormwood responds to Mr. Stone without even looking at him. "That will be sufficient payment for me for said services."

[FrostyNSO]

Hank nods towards Ludmila. "If that's good for you, toots, it's good for me."