IO shakes his head. "Nope. But then again I'm not in the fixer finding business. Want me to poke around a little bit for you?"

Looking with annoyance at Todd....Jim (Ghost) says "look my young friend, feel free when we are at your flat, feel free when we are out an about, feel free ANY FRIGGIN TIME EXEPT when you are in my car!" and with that he sees a women stepping out from a swish westwind and look directly at the Honda.... knowing that this must be one of the contacts.... Jim opens the door slowly and steps out and stands in front of his headlights so he can be seen clearly. "Good evening" he says extending a hand...."am I correct to assume you are looking for me?"

Mirage's cybereyes cut the glare from the cars headlights down to dull glows against the monochrome image provided by her lowlight system. As she reaches the waiting rigger she accepts the offered hand, and then replies, "It seems so, my contact provided your LTG code and said that you're taking on for a job, but didn't give any further details."

She speaks in perfect english, but with a discernible French accent.

"My main area of expertise is combat, but I can also sneak or talk my way around most problems, my prior experience is within the security industry, so I'm also knowledgeable in the methods used to protect sites, or individuals from attack."

Todd gives Ghost a sideways glance, man, this guy needs to lighten up!

He opens the door to the van and steps out along with Jim. Getting a look at the woman waiting for them, Todd smiles, now this is what I'm talkin' about. He sets his skateboard down and kicks over to where Jim and Mirage are greeting eachother.

"Hoi, my names Todd. I sure hope you're a bit friendlier than this grouch."

Mirage watches Todd as he approaches, he doesn't look much older than Kikumi, such a waste of life. She smiles at Todd, "I'm pretty friendly, as long as you're not in my way..."

Her face hardens, "then I'm about the most unfriendly person you could ever meet."

The smile returns, she turns back to Jim and says, "So what's the job?"

"All right, let me see what I can pull up. It's going to take me a little while for any detailed info, though, probably around twenty four hours. If you want it faster it'll cost more."

Turning to Todd as he makes the grouch comment Ghost simpley says "Never confuse being a grouch and being a perfessional, the differance between the two could either get you killed or keep you alive."

Turning back to Mirage he continues...."I am glad you found the time to come here tonight, I know it was a last minute call. I also have alot of experiance in the security field, so hopefully we should get along just fine! The job looks to be a fairly straightforward one and shouldnt be too much of a problem, although I never like to believe what I see! We need to gain access to a medical facility to steal some drums of chemicals, the security doesnt look too tight from what I have seen so far.... they have duel security fences and no apparent drones or network to support them...." and with that Ghost begins to explain the basics of the mission.

When Jim has finished explaining the run, Mirage nods and says, "ok, I'm in. I'll meet you back at your observation position"

With that, she turns and makes her way back to her own car.

"I'd better go with fast and pricey" Blount replies with a grin. "I don't have much time before I'll have to call."

IO grins. "I'll have something for you in eight hours."

Just as they are about to go back to the cars... Jim's phone rings...."Ghost here" and with that he gives details of meeting here ASAP and to keep it discreet. Turning to Mirage, "Im sorry, looks like we have some new people about to join us, do you want to stay here and attend the meet or do some observations of this place yourself? you could always take our friend here to find a jack point so he can get to work" and with that he gives a causal nod in the direction of Todd.

Firmpoint acknowledges, "excelent, be right there"

a short ride later, he is aproaching the destination. when the parking lot barely comes into view, he astrally perceives and sends one of his watchers to go over there and report back the presence of any spirits, or awakened.
(ooc: assuming there's none)
he begins to cast an armor spell upon himself, but seems to think better of it. nothing like a glowing blue aura to make you a target from a thousand yards out. eventually, he settles on a compromise, finding a secluded spot, he casts his armor spell into the ring he wears (4 successes), suddenly being covered in a blue glow, then immediately disappearing, as he casts an improved invisibility spell (8 successes)
walking up to the meeting place, he waits until he's about 15 meters from whoever is there before dropping the invisibility spell and announcing his presence.
"Hello, I was told you were in need of my expertise. My name is Firmpoint, and I provide magical power. Just to ensure that I'm in the right place, what are your names and what job are we doing?"
assuming people answer normally,
"excelent, what reconaisance have we already done? should I go do some astral snooping now?"

"I'll scope the place out for myself," Mirage turns to Todd, "You might as well jump in my car then, lets get you set up with a jackpoint."

"Alright, lets do this then."

Todd grabs his backpack and skateboard, then throws them into the trunk of the car. Taking a seat in the car, Todd winks to Mirage, "Ready when you are, beautiful."

"Well before the last mage left he told me that he had done it and there was nothign of significance...but I am assuming you wont take my word for it and you would rather look yourself, do you have your own transport to the target or do you want to come with me?"

after having recived an answer Ghost leaves for the target.

"I'll come with you, if you don't mind."

When we get there, Firmpoint tells him
"Ok, watch my meat please. this should take about 2 minutes. 5 at the most"
and with that he slips out of his body, and flies toward the building, leaving one of his watcher spirits with orders to come and get him if anything happens to his body.

I fly directly above the compound, then do a quick ring around. I look for anything, watcher spirits, wards, etc. If I don't find any, I slip into the compound and try to get a layout in my head, and also to find any sign of what we're looking for.

is there anything on the astral? are there any people in the compound? how many people, and are any of them awakened? how many people in there have large amounts of cyberware? are there any areas of high concentration (i.e. a main lab, or a guard room, or a break room where lots of people would hang out.)? on the way out, I check the front door to see how well guarded it is.

then I come back to my meat.

As soon as Todd settles into the passenger seat, Mirage hits the gas and the white Westwind roars back onto the Seattle streets, heading towards Tocoma.

When they arrive at the observation position she turns to Todd, "I'll leave you to set yourself up, I'm going to take a closer look at the target site."

Then mirage takes a discrete look around Bicsons perimeter security, looking for any weak links, particularly anywhere that disabling a single camera would open up a blind spot in the video coverage.

"Thanks bud" Blount replies. He hangs up the phone and drives back to his apartment to wait.

coming back to his body, Firmpoint relays a quick summary of what he saw,
"Ok, we've got zero magic, twelve people total, and seven of them hav apreciable cyber. largest concetration is a group of 3 roving guards. of the other 5 who aren't cybered, they could be technicians or masked mages. I saw no sign of the target though (it's pretty hard to ID things like that on astral though.
I want to go in and make another pass. I am going to check all the floors for solidity to see if there's a secret basement, I also want to check on the behavior of the non-cybers, and see if I can tell anything about their job in the complex that way. do you guys have any idea the location of our target? I'd like to scout that room if I could."

If they know where the target is, I include a stop to check out that room very thoroughly, and to see if there are any guards posted on that room, and how far it is from the front door, etc.
I am also going to do everything else I just mentioned: check all the floors to make sure there's just earth beneath them, and spend time watching the non cybers I know I can't tell if they're mundanes or masked by looking, but I want to try to tell by behavior. i.e. if he's mopping the floor, he's probably the janitor. if there's 2 working with a whole bunch of techno gizmos, they're probably techs. if the non-cybers are walking around with or hanging out with the heavy-cybers, I'll guess they might be mages.

Todd takes a look around, trying to spot any place that he could use as a jackpoint.

There is a public tridphone on the corner which, even if broken, could still provide access to the matrix.

The depot does not appear to have any hidden rooms or subbasements. The team has no information regarding the location of the canisters. You suspect that the personnel on site which are not security are most likely janitorial staff.

After having stopped and sent the Codor out into the night sky to look down on the target from a safe distance... Ghost sits back and watches the area with the others.... "anybody would think that the stuff wasnt even there!! - this looks too easy, but maybe thats because there is nothing of value!"

Todd walks over to the payphone and takes out his electronics kit to see if he can patch a connection together.

"Tell me about it. I think that we could do this whole job with a decker on the outside, and me and some muscle going invis through the front door. All we need now is the decker to confirm the security level. pressure plates, pheremone sniffers, anything that my invisibility wouldn't fool."
thinking for a minute, he continues
"I guess that sounds about right. 5k isn't that much, so it makes sense that the job is cake."

All that remains of the tridphone is a hollow, gutted shell of preformed plastic. Poking through the carcass, though, you discover that whoever pulled out the phone's modules has left a majority of the access cable to the matrix intact. Attaching a pair of F/O vampire clips, you power up the system hoping for the best but anticipating the worst. Luckily, PacRimComm has not gotten around to shutting off the feed to this particular phone, and you plune headlong into the digital realms of the matrix.

Todd sets his skateboard down on the ground below the phone and takes a seat on top of it, indian style. He then plugs the dataline directly into his skull and lets his mind enter the matrix.

The first thing to do is finding the target companies hosts...

Adjusting the mirros in the car, Ghost makes sure that he can see Todd at the payphone.... he knows how dangerous it can be to deck in the open!

"If its that easy.... I would suggest we start making preperations and plans of entrance and more importantly.... escape!"

Hearing his phone go off.... he picks it up, but doesnt say anything.... letting whoever is on the other end to start the conversation...

How rude not to say anything ... or maybe he doesn't know which name to use on this number. Let's not jump to conclusions and give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Hello Tusken?", Kim asks in a sweet voice. "I know it's kinda late, but I thought you were expecting my call anyway."

It doesn't take long to find, Bicson's node is designed to appear as a pale gray hospital. Slipping inside, you find a matronly looking nurse avatar sitting at the front desk. Cloaking yourself with green surgical scrubs, you sleeze your way past her, heading towards the "Operations" section of the host. Once there, it takes you a minute to sort through the corporate LTG before you can successfully locate their supply depot.

hearing the female voice on the end of the phone Jim softens his voice (but keeps it just as professional) "Good evening madam, and yes, I do have a place which could be filled... if you go to the old combat biker stadium and meet me there in half and hour I will go through the job details with you...."

Yeah right, a place I really wanna be alone at night, Kim thinks. Perhaps I should propose another location at walking distance, so I don't have to take a cab.

"Please call me Kim. I have no idea where that stadium is, but it doesn't sound like a place for a lady to be this time of day. Would it be terribly inconvenient to just pick me up at home?"

Well, Jim thinks to himself... she obviously isnt a street sam. "Ok then Kim, how about somewhere public? do you know the shopping centre on fifth and western? meet me there instead... and just out of curiousity... what kind of skills are you going to bring to the party?"

Kim definitely doesn't like this Tusken. Not only did he lack the most basic etiquette, but by making her go to the shopping centre within half an hour she won't have time for a shower or even "breakfast".

"What did you ask for ... entertainment? How will I recognize you?"

Mirage gets back from her walkabout as Firmpoint is discussing the security.

"This big coat of mine is equipped with active camouflage, it can hide me in the visual and infra-red spectrums, though it is not as effective as invisibility magic, it would allow me to operate independently of your spells if necessary."

"I have checked around the perimeter, and I haven't seen anything that Ghost hasn't already described, but I have noted that their camera coverage is barely adequate, if we can disable one camera either with a rifle or by providing a false feed via the Matrix it will open a huge hole in their surveillance capability. We could use this either to help us enter undetected, or as a diversion."

She turns to Jim, "If you need a hand or some backup meeting the rest of the team, we might as well make use of my car as well."

"Well at this time of night there arnt going to be too many people walking around anyway. I will be the clean shaven dwarf wearing a navy blue pin stripe suit" thinking to himself that there always seems to be one ackward one he keeps him calm, even though if she had called earlier she could have gone to the meet at the biker ground with everyone else!!

That was all Kim needed to know. The suggested location had made her question she had anything suitable to wear, so she was relieved to hear about the suit.
"Ok, I'll meet you there in 30 minutes." She hangs up and calls for a cab.

After feeling if she needs to cover her legs, she quickly changes into a midnight blue, mid thigh length, narrow lower slant notch, lapel covered front jacket with classic straight skirt. She grabs her raincoat and walks out the door.

Down in the lobby she walks to the security desk.
"Heya Sam, how do I look?"
She turns around still holding her raincoat over her arm.

"As if you come straight out of bed. Hehe, just kidding. You look gorgeous as always."

"Thanks, I always appreciate your honesty too. Did my cab arrive yet or could you tell me all about this new guy?"

Sam points at the front door that just opened.
"That must be the driver, so we'll have to gossip later. Have fun."


At the mall Kim magically fixes her appearance (just to be sure) and watches out for a dwarf.

Walking through the mall slowly and casually, looking in shop windows (actually, the reflection in the window to see behind him) and trying to appear as causal as possible.... Not having had a description from the women meeting him he waited until he was approched and when this would happen, he would smile and greet the young lady with an outstreched hand.... that way it was a warm welcome for the lady meeting him and to anyone else it would look like a blind date or some such thing...

It doesn't take long before Kim notices the window-shopping dwarf. As she gets close to him, Jim turns around. She takes the offered hand and bends forward to kiss him. "Hello, you must be Tusken."

"Good evening, and I assume you must be Kim.... I must apolagise for my attitude on the phone earlier, I have had rather a stressful night tonight and seem to have been nominated as the teams leader!" with that he starts walking casually, all the while keeping an eye out for anything or anyone suspicious. "would you like a lift to the site or do you have your own transport? I was hoping we could talk about the job at hand and talk through any ideas you may have"

Kim smiles; a kiss on the cheek usually helps to set a friendly atmosphere right from the start. "No problem, I might have been a bit moody because I just woke up and haven't got time for coffee nor food yet." Let's hope he gets the hint this time, she thinks, while Jim starts walking. Looking down at the dwarf to see if she could take his arm, Kim decides he's too small to walk like that comfortably.
"I'd love to ride with you, but I have no idea what the job is you're talking about. So, where are we going now and will we meet the team there?" Kim thinks if she should add /or on site/ to the question, but doubt that would make a good impression. It should be obvious enough what she wants.

Meanwhile, in the Matrix...

Todd sets his board down and steps onboard. Logging onto this local telcom grid was a breeze, now he had to make his way over to the company hosts. He kicks his foot and the skateboard moves down the pipeline before him and out onto the Seattle LTG. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a bottle of bubbles. He dips the wand into the bottle and bringing it up to his mouth, blows, sending bubbles swirling around him. One by one, they all pop, until only one remains as he drifts off into the distance. The boy smiles to himself and skates off after it, chasing it down as it leads him to the Bicson PLTG.

The bubble pops in front of a plain office building with the words BICSON scrawled across it and Todd doesn’t a kick flip on his skateboard as he jumps through the door. No one notices him as people wander back and forth through the host; he is just another kid after all. Skidding to a stop in front of the corporate directory, Todd takes a moment to scan through it.

Down the hall, first door on the right, then the second door to the left. No problem.

It is only a moment before Todd skates onto the scene of the Tacoma Depot Host and skids to a halt. Here he takes a moment to get a feel for his surroundings and analyze the host. Just as the data filters through his head, he spots a small bloodhound sniffing at his feet. Taking a moment to look it over, he confirms it to be Probe IC. He almost feels sorry for the thing as he picks up his skateboard and bashes it against the head, scattering its code. He quickly scoops the code up into his ball cap and places it back on his head.

Alright, time to get down to business.

Pulling out the bottle of bubbles again, Todd searches out the file store that has references to the package the team was looking for. Skating down the corridor he skids to a halt in front of a filing cabinet. Instinctively, he reaches in and pulls out the file he is looking for an gives it a quick scan.

Damnit. Nothing on here but numbers!

He shoves the file back into the cabinet and slams it shut in frustration.

Let’s give the security system a look and see what we’re up against…

Chasing after his locater bubble, Todd finds himself in a corridor full of display screens.

Ok. Twenty-four cameras total. I wonder if there is any way for me to do a mass control loop on them…. Ugh, nope. One at a time it is. No biggy, this place isn’t exactly the toughest system to crawl around in. Lets see… Oh yeah, I gotta check the maintenance records.

Skating through the host, Todd stumbles onto the information he is looking for. Reading over the documents, he can’t help but get frustrated. It looks as if just about everything is done in-house except for when heavy machinery is brought in and it was doubtful that was gunna happen any time soon.

Better verify the security schedule while I’m here.

Skating back over into the security sub-system, Todd brings up their records and looks them over. He is able to quickly verify that what was found out by astral security is true. Shift changes every eight hours. Pretty standard stuff.

A buzzing in his ear alerts Todd to a new presence. Turning around, he watches as a little eyeball with wings flys off down his data trail.

Crap! Trace IC… No biggy.

He swats at it with his hand, but the damn thing continues on. Frustrated, Todd skates off after it, casing it down in a heartbeat, kicks the board and leaps into the air. He catches the pesky little program in his hands, opens his mouth and gulps it down.

Alright, one last thing before I go…

He skates back over to the maintenance sub-system and grabs a copy of the building blue prints off the wall. After looking around to make sure he isn’t being watch, Todd skates out of the host, leaving no trace behind.

Todd reaches up and unplugs the cord from his datajack. He decides to leave this terminal hooked up, but takes a moment to make it look messy and out of service. After that, he jumps on his skateboard and rolls up to Mirage's car.

"Alright, I got some stuff. Not a lot, but at least its something to work with. You ready to go?"

"Well we can stop and get some coffee and something to eat on the way if you like, I wouldnt say no to something to eat either... when working you never really know when your next meal might be!" and as they walk off to the car, Jim sets about explaining what is involved and what the payment is like....

"Like you read my mind." Kim says. "Anywhere is fine with me."

After all her questions about the team, Reign and whatever happened before are answered she's quietly brainstorming. Something about it all is bothering her, but she's not sure what it is yet. She goes over the numbers, to see if that's it...a quarter, 1/8, 1/64,1/21 times 55 ...27kg plus the canister itself makes about 30kg if filled with water. So 17kg would make them half empty or filled with something light? Nah, this isn't strange at all. There must be something else. Too bad I don't know anything about those negotiations between Bicson and Doc Wagon, definitely something to look into. What was the reason for stealing again? To teach them a lesson? Clearly it's something else, since there's no proffit in teaching. The stuff must be worth something especially if it is only available in a limited quantity. So why would Reign pay us for stealing it, in stead of for what it's worth? Seems easy enough to check that, but is it really only a clever way to haggle? How about not opening the canisters? Seems like they don't want us to see what's inside, but the explanation sounds sollid enough.

Kim sighs. I'll figure it out eventually.

"If our employer wants to pay Biscon a lesson, he would pay more for the Prolaxine than it's worth, or someone who would be able to get his hands on it might consider selling it back to Biscon, right?"

"Yeah I guess so" Jim nods his head thoughtfully... sencing the womans feelings Jim carries on... "what I cant help but wonder is why this all seems a little too easy!"


Meeting up with the rest of the team Jim introduces Kim to them all so they can set about sorting out the run.