Once Todd gets into her car Mirage drives straight back to the OP.

Seeing the new arrival she offers her hand and says, "Bonjour, my name is Mirage, you must be Kim."

Todd grins at Kim. "Hey there, you can call me Todd. Nice ta meet cha."

Turning to the rest of the group, he says, "So, I got some info, how about we get our asses in gear and figure out what we're gunna do?"

Finally realising that this child of a decker has said something intelligent for once Jim simply says "couldnt agree more"

"Alright, check it. I got the blueprints for the building, though it doesn't have the locations of all the security stuff on it. Well, I guess I could add it in if you like. There are 24 cameras total... here, let me fit them into the map... ok, there. I'm not going to be able to over ride all the cameras at the same time, so we're going to need to make a plan for who will be where and when, that way I know when and which cameras to hack. I can also deal with the doors and whatnot as you all get to them.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a whole lot more than that. All the system had was data about the storage ID numbers for the containers. Nothing about what is in them. All their staffing is inside the company, except when heavy machinery gets installed, which isn't very often. I also verified that security shifts change every 8 hours. There isn't a whole lot more to it than that, but if you guys can think of...

Drek! I bet you the info on what is in those containers isn't on that host, its just the depot server. I bet you if I dig around the main company hosts datastores I'll get more info on that. Do you guys want me to look into it, or does it not really matter to you? I just thought it would be good to know just in case the things need special care to keep them from blowing up in our faces."

"Good evening." Kim says, while shaking Mirage's hand.

"Nice to meet you all."

"So you're the whizkid Jim told me about." She smiles at Todd. "I was expecting someone younger."

"I see no reason to wait either. What have you guys found out till now?"


After listening to what Todd had to say Kim asks "Could we take a few steps back please? Shouldn't we check a few things first, before we're gonna assume we need to go inside, or do you guys know what Prolaxene is and that the story about the negotiations is really true?"

Firmpoint is leaning back against the side of the van. He ashes his cigarette with a well-manicured hand, then adds, in a soft, deadpan voice
"There are always ways to find things out... find out what time the supply clerk goes off duty, intercept him on his way home, and find out what he knows. if you could find out what the stock code for it is, that would help out immensely, since there's no guarantee that the clerk even knows what it is, but if you let me talk to him, I will guarantee his full cooperation."
he then adresses Todd with mild curiosity.
"you said there were cameras. any ultrasound or pressure plates that could detect invisibility?"

"I agree with Kim.... after all, I would like to know if this depot has normal phone lines or secure ones, because if they are normal then I would like to try cutting them off from the outside world for the duration of our visit! and as I have said a few times before... I want comfirmation that those containers are what we are told they are and if they are even fraggin in there!!" Taking a sip of his Soycafe which seems to be rapidly going cold... "and I also would like to know the story for ourselves about these negotations!"

Thank you for the support Jim. Now let me explain why I don't think those are trivial questions.

Let's say I'd tell Mirage I don't like Jim and I want to teach him a lesson. Suppose I'll tell her that I'd like her to steal his car for 10% it's worth. In this case Mirage has nothing to gain, since she could sell it to someone else for a lot more and it's not like it's such a great idea that I deserve to get most of the profit. Now suppose I'd give her 10% more, then she could go to Jim and ask if he's willing to sell it. It might not even be Jim's car I'm interested in, but something that's inside or maybe it is the car but just to make it into a bomb.

I can tell you now, that I'm not willing to pay for the canisters and will gladly steal it for more than it's worth, however the other options do not really appeal to me that much.

Todd takes in all the questions that come his way, holds up a finger and closes his eyes to remember it all...

Grunting at the idea of his car being stolen, the only pleasure he allows himself in his working life, he grumbles "well no fragger better steal my wheels... they do they die!"

Todd nods, sure he remembers it right, "No, no ultrasound or pressure plates. I've got the stock numbers for the items if you need em. I've also had the idea that I should look up those codes within the main corporate database. I couldn't find any info about whats in them on the depot's host, but I bet there would be more on the main grid."

"It's just a metaphor Jim. Let's hope Bicson has a different philosophy than you though.", Kim explains. "The last team I worked with expressed their wishes to have known about my motives very unambiguously. This seemed like an understandable way to put my thoughts into words, but maybe I got a bit carried away with it." Kim shrugs. "Maybe I should just stop boring you now and listen to what you want to do next."

"I'm not a very good car thief anyway, so don't worry," says Mirage.

"I like Jim's suggestion about the phone lines, maybe Todd can handle that without us needing to physically cut the lines."

She looks at Kim, "do you have any contacts that could provide more detail about Biscon than we already have?"

"Phone lines are a peice of cake. If I'm gunna head back online, I'll need a list of what to dig into. Hmmm... I could also spend some time tonight going through Shadowland and see if anything comes up there."

"As I've mentioned to some of you before, we seem to be getting paid penuts for this job. (ooc: I think there's 5 of us, if there's more, adjust the number accordingly) 25,000 total for an antidote to VITAS. I guarantee that any one person aflicted with the disease would be willing to pay that much, at least, to be treated. and if they plan on marketting it en-masse, I guarantee they're gonna be raking in a fortune. I apreciate humanitarian causes, but dislike idiots. these people could easily afford to pay us 10 times what we're being offered. that would also pay for me to summon some elementals, which will make this job five times easier.
As I see it, we have 4 choices:
A: shut up and do what we're told.
B: walk.
C: renegotiate our contract with our employer (if you feel sheepish, I will do it since I was not at the original negotiations). and ask for a larger payout.
D: Sell it on our own. There must be more companies than these two who want the financial power this antidote would give them. it's a huge proffit source, and it's great PR and advertising, plus they can avoid any corporate troubles by saying our employers stole it and sold it to them, they had no idea it was stolen.

Personally, I like the 4th choice. the only problems are that A: we get a rep for going back on our word, and B: our employers may try to purchase a hit on us.

So here's what I suggest: we call our employers and tell them point blank that there's alot more money in this than we're being offered, and they either increase their price or we will be forced to sell it through another channel. The benefits to this are: if they raise the price, we get to fulfil our contract, and it doesn't hurt our Rep at all. and second that we can see what their resources are. if they're paying us all they can afford, then I guarantee they won't be able to buy assassins of any quality to come after us. It also implies that they reall are a goody-two-shoes operation and probably wouldn't resort to assassinations. Besides, if they're real goal is the drug being available to the public, it shouldn't matter to them if another company does it instead of them.

Personally, I believe they have the money to pay us more, simply because the equipment required to figure out what this treatment, how to engineer it, and then to begin production of it, would cost in the millions of nuyen, if they can afford all that, they can afford to pay us more than 5k apiece... unless they're not a company, but are in fact working for one very sick rich man, who would then be willing to pay any price to get treated, and would still go along with it."

Firmpoint waits a moment for this to sink in to the others, while contemplating if there are any othe possibilities that he hadn't considdered. Of course it's entirely possible that it's not the antidote that he's being sent after, but he thinks better of mentioning that. He'll wait until he talks to the employers to guage their reactions on that subject.

"Any thoughts?"

Todd looks a little sceptical, but still excited, "Is that what is supposed to be in these containers? Whoa! That is crazy kinds of wiz!"

"The information we're looking for right now isn't really a secret Mirage."

"You aren't making much sense Firmpoint. Bicson made it and I don't think they're our employer. I have no idea why you're bringing up A or B as an actual choice either. Both C and D sounds like exactly the same choice to me, but I think it's a bit premature to discuss it without the information what's in those canisters."

"I know Bicson made it, but we're by no means stealing enough to treat everyone. my guess is that we're stealing enough that our employers can reverse engineer it, and make their own supplies. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

A and B were listed because, as undesirable as they are, they're still options. C and D differ in whom we negotiate with. do we call our employers and renegotiate with them? or just contact Yamatetsu, Saeder, or UniOmni, and see what they would pay."

"Don't rule out the Draco Foundation. If this is really what you guys say it is, I'm sure they'd fall all over themselves trying to get their hands on it."

"At this point we don't know anything yet, but why limit ourselves to one buyer beforehand? If your suspicions are right, I'd say we give it to everyone who wants a piece of it."

"Alright. Why don't I take these stocking numbers and dig around the Bicson main host and see what comes up? We need to know what we are dealing with before deciding what to do."

Jim sits back and watches everyone else talk.... he doesnt want his rep to be damaged, after all he did work hard for it! "I think we should consider possibility E- that we steal the containers, verify what this stuff is or could be.. and then we sort ourselves outin regards to who we sell it to and for how much. Besides, this could all be hyperthetical if we frag up!"

"Ok Jim, what do you suggest? Hostages, stealth or brute force?"

Todd looks like he is getting a little impatent.

knowing that everyone was starting to get a little stressed at this overplanning Jim just wanted to make his point and then see what happens from there...

"Stealth every time, if they dont know we are there then they can't put up much of a defence! but we make sure that we have plenty of alternate plans just incase it hits the fan. How about this for a plan- We have Todd sat at a safe distance, he runs against the matrix part of this corp and takes out security cameras and also makes a bogus appointment for some cleaning materials to be delivered, something big enough to require a van and some access to the building to drop it off. Everyone goes in via the hole in the security where the camera has gone down so that we then have manpower inside the building. I pull up in a van (which we will have to get from somewhere as I dont actually own one!) and bluff my way in using a forged ID card and things from their cleaners, let them search the van as it will have nothing obvious in it as you guys will be going in through the fence. I pull in, if a guard is there then we knock them out... we load up the van as soon as possible and we all go out the same way we came in. me through the gates and you over the fence. The back up plan will have to be a varity of escape routes for losing any attention in the local area, maybe places we can ditch the van, and obviously somewhere we can hide. If it gets messy, then we can all get into the van and head out by force through the gates and eventually split up and meet later when its safe."

Trying to look professional he sits back and waits for the inevitable hole picking in the plan, but he secretly feels nervous due to being made to feel like he has to lead the group since the others left.

Todd shrugs, "Sounds good to me. Just give me at least 24 hour notice, so I can validate an account on the system for myself and get the camaras ready."

"The van sounds great as back up, but I would rather have us carry the canisters out. It sure sounds easy enough to me, almost makes you wish something goes wrong doesn't it?"

"Ok, Todd, take all the time you need. I'll also remind people that with invis on, we can march an army in there under their noses. no camera alteration needed. what I'm worried about, however, is how do we get the stuff out? what form is it stored as? 55 gallon drums or just a test tube? does anyone know how much of this stuff is supposed to be there? Todd, if you can find out anything about it, even if it has to be a round-about fashion (i.e. looking at the company's logs to see what kind of truck delivered it), that would help."

"Are we just taking the canisters? Or should Todd take a look at the rest of their stock to see if there is anything else valuable we could take. We could possibly make a big score from this job without having to extort more money from her employers."

Mirage has also spent a while building up a rep, and isn't interested in betraying her employers.

Continuing with Mirages point Jim says "well thats why I was thinking of loading the van up... we can then carry much more out. and from what I remember these were fairly big drums as well, so I can't imagine you wanting to carry them out by hand!"

"Look guys, it's fine with me that you're in this for the money. As far as I'm concerned you can steal everything that's in this place, as long as you keep me out of it. If you want to risk getting caught when the van gets searched on the way out, I don't want it to be my problem. So yes, I do want us to carry those 17kg canisters out by hand and you can fill that van with anything you like.

My intention is not to /extort/ our employers as I tried to explain before, I just don't want to be used. If we steal those things, they are ours and I want to know what exactly it is that we have then, before we sell it to anyone."

ooc: my question on how big they were was in hopes that someone would go back and review the post where our employer tells us their dimensions and such. I wasn't at that meeting, so I can't "remember" that info. but surely the people who were there took notes...

assuming someone remembers that they're 25cm diameter and 55cm high, Firmpoint says the following,
"well, by my calculations, that's about [he pauses, mumbling to himself for about 6 seconds] 27kg if that volume was filled with water. they mentioned it was under it's own atmosphere, so some of that volume must be gas, but the container itself will be metal, so I'd guestimate around 40kg (or 88 pounds to anyone still living in the 20th) each, and we need 2 of them. easily carried with a dolly, which most loading docks would have.

now, we need to come to a conclusion on our plan. according to my astral scans, security is light, including no magical personel. Todd has indicated no high tech sensors of any kind. while we're sitting here bickering, I could literally walk in there, invisible, kill everyone but one person in there, take control of his mind to make him carry out the items for me, then have him put his gun in his mouth, without ever being seen. But, I dislike wetwork unless I've considdered the other options first. so we can buy a dozen handcuffs, I walk in there invis, and one at a time I control the minds of people to walk into a room, undress to remove any comunication devices, and handcuff themselves to something. do that for everyone, then we have the entire fascility to play with.

My point is that if we're only getting paid 5 grand, I'm only gonna do work worth 5 grand. which means I'm not gonna go out and buy a 12 grand van just to complete this mission. it also means that if this company has hidden security like drones coming up from the floor, or highly initiated mages who are masking, that I'm walking, or at least renegotiating. I don't risk taking a bullet for less than 12 grand.

Now, does anyone here have knowledge of chemistry, biology, or anything of that nature with which we could appraise whatever else is in that building? computers of course can be sold, as with some other doodads, but we need something good if we're gonna make this worthwhile. Todd, would you mind checking the database? the other option, like I said, is to abduct a shipping clerk, and let me talk to him. I guarantee he will tell us everything we want to know, about where our target is, and about anything else valuable in there."

ooc: realizing that the duration on his watchers is probably about up, I am going to re-summon a new batch. no drain of course (trauma damper).

"Abducting a clerk seems a good idea."

Mirage turns back to Kim, "ok, I've got to admit, I didn't realise the job was so poorly paid until I met Ghost. Maybe we should try to renegotiate with the Johnson. As most of the original team have vanished the job is obviously not very attractive as it stands."

"I'd much rather renegotiate now than wait till we have got the canisters, it smacks of a double-cross too much."

She nods to Jim, "Personally I agree with Ghost's original plan to use the van, if we take everything valuable that we can, it will serve to mask the true purpose of the raid, as well as increasing our profit."

"I can take care of the gate security, I've got some Gamma-Scopolamine rounds, but if we can't negotiate a higher fee then this job does not really pay enough to justify their use."

Mirage looks at Firmpoint, "Do you have any non-lethal combat spells? I'd also prefer to avoid wetwork, especially if the reward does not justify the potential penalty."

"Not directly. the closest I have would be Control Actions. I have always marketed myself as a combat mage. Non-lethal has never been much in demand. I'm not above buying a couple stun grendades, though."

Ghost looks around at the group...."So let me get this straight, we are going to use a combination of my plan to take the canisters out in the van, plus anything else we can sell... but we are going to break in and take out security from the inside, right?"

"Whatever... it's your party.", Kim says slightly aggravated for being so bluntly ignored.

Starting to feel a little stressed now at all this talking which seems to be just going around in circles... Jim sits back, not knowing what to do or say!

"I think however we decide to break in, we've all agreed that we need to re-negotiate our payment before we go any further, right? lets hear a "yes" or "no" from each person, and when we all agree, we'll make the call"

"No, did I stutter when I said I want to get more information before selling? I don't give a ratsass if we steal it before or after negotiations with anyone either, so why don't we just let Jim decide what to do?"

Todd shakes his head slightly, not wanting to get involved. He walks over to the nearest trix connection and glances over his shoulder at the group one last time before sliding the dataline directly into his datajack, something the group hasn't likely seen before.

"I think we should get more information as well, we werent given a specific time frame for this run to be carried out in and more information can never hurt.... I mean, we dont know things such as if these barrels need keeping at a specific tempreture during transport. but the way this discussion about the intended plan of attack is going, we all have to agree on how its going to happen and what happens afterwords"

"I agree that we should find out more information first, hopefully Todd can accomplish that quickly."

"I still think that we should haggle for a higher price before we steal the canisters, it will seem less like a double cross that way. The way Ghost described the job, it seems that this is only the first of two jobs, it may just be a test of loyalty, hence the apparent simplicity."

"On reflection, I agree with Kim. Maybe we should just take the canisters back over or through the fence."

Mirage turns to Kim with a smile, "You are quite persuasive, maybe you could handle the renegotiation."

"lets go with that plan then... we only change if something forces us to! -Kim, would you be happy talking to the clients and seeing about a higher fee?"

Kim quickly calms down again when she hears at least Jim and Mirage have been listening to her. Returning the smile to Mirage she says: "Thank you. I'll be happy to negotiate a better price, if Todd finds that the canisters are worth a lot more."

"Ok Kim, if you could get in contact with our employers as soon as possible please so that we can get on with the matter of money! - ok, does anyone know where we can find out about stealing a van from one of their contract companies? because we need to get our backup sorted" Having a quick think and wanting to get everyone motivated he continues... "Can somebody else look into trailing one of the wage slaves home and seeing what they can find out from them, you never know... they may let us in on some corp secrets! So is everyone clear as to whats happening?"

"Sure, I'll see how Todd's doing ... he's got the number right?" She's not too happy with the visualization of Firmpoint pulling information out of a clerk, but she's not very keen on having to do it her way either. Probably best not to think about it anymore and with that in mind Kim walks away.

She puts her hand on his shoulder. "How's it .... ", possible she thinks, ".. going?", she asks. "Don't you need a deck or something?"

Standing up, Jim says to the remaining people... "I need some help for stealing a van, I need someone who can at least drive, but it would be a help if they have the skills to steal it as well... we will be heading over to one of the cleaning or supply companies to see where we can steal an appropriate vehicle from."

Todd unplugs the datacord and leans back against the wall.

"Alright... here is what I found out.

The containers are holding a compound known as Prolaxine. Prolaxene is a very powerful sedative with mild hallucinogenic effects that is used to treat seizures, depression, and muscle spasms resulting from aneurysms or general brain trauma. It has been used as a painkiller in the past, specifically for VITAS cases, but is not used in that respect any longer. Bicson's main host has reports there is a specific job order from Bicson to its primary supplier directing that the amount of Prolaxine held on-hand at the depot be temporarily increased pending the outcome of a contract dispute.

The stuff isn't a cure to VITAS, its just something that is used to help fight some of the effects."

"Great. so now, our employers lied to us or they're uninformed.
If they're ill informed, then we should call them and inform them, they might refuse to pay us anything if it's not what they expected, even if it's what they asked for. If they lied, then we need to call again and renegotiate. if they're trying to grab a shipment of drugs, that's fine, but the price has gotta go up.

There's always a third option, where they deliberately offered a paltry sum and some bad information on an easy target as a test to see if we would charge in there blindly, or think things through. in which case, again, it's best that we call the employers to let them know that we do think things through, so they can give us the real job."