Ghost sits back... "looks like we should ring the bossman then and let them know..." Picking up his pocket sec he keys in the number and waits for the phone to be answered.

Reign answers on the third ring.

"Good evening. I trust things are proceeding well?"

Keeping things on a bussiness level Ghost simply explains whats happened. "Things are going steadily, but we feel that there is some information you need to know. Our decker has been researching into the companies files and has discovered some discrepancies in what we have found out and what you informed us, we would simpley like to check weather you are aware of these things and if not how you would like us to proceed."
Elaberating on what was found out by Todd he explains the situation and then leaves it...waiting for Reign to digest the information and give his answer.

Reign seems vaguely surprised.

"Hmm, that was not included in the information I received from my employers. For now, continue with the mission as tasked. If the situation changes, I will advise you accordyingly."

"very well, but I would like some some sort of reassurance that we will still get paid for our work even if this isnt the chemical you require" Jim says in a firm voice.

Reign seems vaguely insulted at the insinuation.

"Of course. The work will still have taken place. If it turns out that what you retrieve is not what my employer wants, we may ask you to repenetrate the facility in order to secure the correct items."

"Very well...we shall continue as planned then!" and with that he says goodbye and hangs up.

Turning to the others Ghost says "well, he says the plan is still to go ahead, and if this chemical is not exactly what the employer wants we will still be paid"

Kim looks down covering her eyes with her right hand and gently shakes her head in disbelieve of what just happened. In situations like these, where she cares what someone thinks of her, she knows it's best to keep quiet if she's got nothing nice to say. She smiles thinking about possible reactions and can't help some air escaping through her nose.

hearing the air, Jim turns to look at her..."if your wondering why I didnt ask for more money, the reason is its such a simple job... I dont see the need."

Kim looks up to gaze back at Jim in astonishment. "Dear Jim, I'm not the one who lied to you, so stop the insults please. You asked me to take care of the negotiations, so I'm sure you called for another reason. It just was funny that you kept talking like you're surprised after you hung up."

Saying nothing, Firmpoint stands up, puts on his coat, picks up his briefcase, and exits the van.

He would rather leave without comment, but if someone asks directly, he will answer,
"This is either amateur night, or a setup. The stakes are barely able to cover the former, and definitely not enough to risk the latter. I'm out. Enjoy my share of the proffits, and I wish you well"
stepping down and out of the van, he walks away, pauses, then returns.
"One more friendly piece of advice. I'd find out how much control Ms. Reign has over this project. She makes repteated refferences to the desires of her employers, and to the information they provide her with, but when asked about whether you'll get paid if it's not a cure, she gave a personal guarantee without consulting with the company. Now either she has more control of this than she's letting on, or she was bluffing you, and you might not get paid."
with that, he turns and walks back out into the night.

ooc: I will check back on this thread in case anyone does make an attempt to reel me back in, but my character believes (as do I) that part of being a professional is knowing what jobs not to take.

Todd just sits back and watches everything going on for a while.

"Yeah well, I need the money, so I'm still in. Whats the plan gunna be, cause I'm gunna need some time to get things ready on my end."

Jim watches for a secound with a thoughtful look on his face... and then goes after Firmpoint...."hey man, im sorry.... never was much good at this leader drek! im seriously stuggling as to how we do this job, how about we leave this place for tonight... then sit down somewhere a bit more...distant from the target area and come up with an agreed plan. we can go over any details together then, and take our time. Look, I dont know how your doing for money at the moment but im not exactly flush. Otherwise I think I might be tempted to walk away... for what its worth I think your right, it does sound fishy... but how many runs have you been on that havent? so as I say, lets go somewhere else... sit down and sort things out as a team. what do you say?"

He never liked the whole big speech thing...but this was one of those times when he had to do something, anything to get this guy to stay. Jim waited there... waiting to see if Firmpoint would say anything or just simpley turn and walk.

Mirage is pretty shocked by Jim's actions, "I'm still in, I need the money anyway, but what happened to Kim phoning them?"

She calls to the disappearing Firmpoint, "look this should be a cakewalk with your magic. It's only 5000, but you may as well get the nuyen before you run off."

He had expected at least one to try to get him to stay, and had intentionally walked slow to give them some time. Pausing a second, Firmpoint comes back to the van and stands just outside the open door, steps inside, closing the door, but kneeling on the seat so as to adress everyone, trying to gain an air of authority.

"With my magic, this might be a piece of cake, depending on how you want to do it. I can walk in there and kill every living thing in there without breaking a sweat, sparing one clerk who will show me the way to the prolaxene, and whom I will leave with a new definition of fear.
The problem is, while industrial espionage stealing a drug that doesn't work, won't bother Star, rampant murder will, especially since it's Star themselves who provides the security here. If we opt for this, I suggest obtaining a chemsuit to wear in. it will keep any kind of DNA traces from being left and will conceal our identities. It will alos look more confusing if multiple compounds are stolen by theives in chemsuits. It suggests a different clientel than standard runners.
This can always be our fallback plan, if nothing else.

Second option for magic:
I astrally project in there with two elementals following me. I have an air one to knock out the security operator, and a fire one for any heavy fights. we fly through walls, and air elemental appears in guard room, knocking out the guard running the room. we then go into the storage area, and I have an elemental carry it out. I use watchers to draw away any guards who might wander into the way. Then the only ones that get toasted are any unlucky enough to not fall for the watchers, at which case I have the the fire elemental materialize to melt them. Advantages are that it's possible to do this entirely without killing anyone, maybe even getting the item out without anyone knowing what we stole.
The downside of this is it's expensive and time consuming. I'd need about twelve grand in materials and a day and a half to summon these elementals and be back to fighting shape.
If we like this idea, then I suggest we call our employer and negotiate for them to pay expenses.

Option 3:
Get in the compound through some combination of disguiise, B&E skills, or an inside man, invis the canisters, and take them out the front door.
The downside to this is, I don't know how to do it reliably, and if it goes bad, it will turn into a slaughter the building kind of plan, but without us having the element of surprise, or most of our heavy weapons.

I'm willing to listen to any other suggestions people have also, but I have a couple of non-negotiable requests if you want me to stay with this:\
1: At the FIRST sight that these guys have heavier security than we've been lead to believe we bolt. If one high tech drone comes out of nowhere, I'm not gonna stick around to see if it has any friends.

2: We do some more checkup on this product we're stealing. Our employers obviously don't know squat about it, so I want to know some simple things like is it available to the public at all? It's a Hallucinogenic, is it close to any kind of street drug?

3: We call back Reign. Someone else can talk if they feel more skilled at it, but I have some questions that need answering. like how affiliated is she with these johnsons, and how does she know they'll consent to pay us no matter what we bring? Also, if she is supposed to be running a humanitarian cause here, to get medicine, I want to see what the employer's feeling about a high body count is. mention that without compensation for expenses like elementals, fake IDs or trucks, we have little other option; you get what you pay for.

Ok, I've talked enough for now. I'm going to shut up and listen to your thoughts."

Firmpoint sits down, back against the wall

Todd leans back against the wall of the van and listens to Firmpoint go on and on. "Dude. This is stuck a cakewalk. You said so yourself. Who cares what is in the containers, we got hired to get them and get paid. But whatever, I'll play along. I just think you guys are making this out to be a much bigger deal than it needs to be."

Ghost listens quietly to what Firmpoint has to say... slightly wondering why he never mentioned all of this before, as it may have taken some of the pressure off him... Hearing Todd say that he simpley turns around to the young Decker and says "Todd, how many runs have you actually done?! ive done many and I know two things for definate. One is that things are almost never as they seem, and the other is that nobody ever got killed for overplanning. So unless you have a valid point to make about how we can carry out this run more effectively.... please keep the comments to yourself."

"Sure thing dad", Todd replies, with a bit of a smirk.

Kim sighs deeply. "Ok, listen up guys. The most probable explanation for what Todd found is that our employers knew exactly what prolaxene is. Somehow they found out there's more of this mild hallucinogenic painkiller stored for a while and they made up the story about it being a cure for VITAS for obvious reasons. All I want to know now is how much it's worth, before confronting our employers with their deceit."

"I can do a quick search for that, it should only take a sec."

Todd plugs himself back into the dataline and only 30 seconds later, he unplugs then looks back up at Kim, "It ain't worth too much. Each container may have a street price of about 5 grand."

"Thanks Todd, I guess that settles it then. We're getting a lot more than the stuff is worth, so I'm not gonna make a big deal of them lying to us. Let's just go over the plan step by step and see if we can carry it out tonight shall we?"

Kim looks around the group to see if there are any objections before asking:
"Do we go through the double fence or over it?"

"Well logic would tell me through the fence...because although we may be able to climb over the fence one way, I cant see it being to easy (or healthy) to try and lift the canisters over on the way back. So to me logic dictates through...."

Very happy Jim doesn't change the subject to one of the other plans Kim decides not to mock him. "Although I could probably climb the fence with 17kg in a backpack, it's certainly easier to go through. It shouldn't make much difference if we'll leave traces, as long as they don't find out while we're inside."

Kim wonders a bit about alarms going off while cutting a hole in the fence and if anyone even brought some tools, but decides it's not important yet. "We already discussed moving from the fence to the building without getting caught on camera, so what remains is how we get inside. Any ideas?"

Todd thinks for a minute... "Ya know... if I could get a recording of the guard who is at the front gate checking in, you guys could just go up to the front gate, take him out, and if any other guards check in on him, I'll release the recording of him to them.

As far the cameras, I can handle those no problem, I'll just need a few minutes to take care of pre-recordings."

Mirage nods, "I could use a couple of Gamma-Scop rounds on the gate guards, they're pricey, but much cheaper than elementals, so I'm prepared to use three or four rounds without claiming expenses from everybody else."

She grins, "given the 5000 nuyen payoff, it's stictly non-drug rounds after that though. My gun's silenced so if Todd handles the camera's nobody should notice."

"And, if we want cheap hits, my spells are free too. plus they're silenced, and I have infinite range, just need line of sight. bulletproof glass don't mean squat either. "

Kim's getting impatient again. "Yes, I'm sure you can all get past the guards and although that's very impressive I'm more interested in if there's anyone who can get past a lock."

"I can open them for you. They all had matrix connections. This is what Overwatch is all about."

"So, muscle our way in, find the stuff, and muscle our way out before reinforcements arive. that's our plan? If so, it works for me, provided we can find the stuff.
Unless someone's got a better idea, I suggest we have our wiz-kid over here go in, get us a hard copy of the floor plan of the area, then drop into each of the cameras, scan the rooms, and find where things are. just look for canisters of that size, or any ordinary storage. divide all the rooms into 3 groups: not there (broom closet, etc), possibly for general storage areas, or very likely if you see objects that match the description. that'll cut our search time down alot."

"Oh, and I still suggest using chemsuits as disguises, it is Star in there. does anyone have a contact that could get those, or should we pop out a yellow pages?"

"Umm... I already got you floor plans, but I can look up the ID number for the containers and tell you where to go to pick them up."

"Todd, can you give me an electronic copy of the floorplans for my orientation system?"

"If you can give me a chip to use, sure."

"So we go invis. Todd takes care of the camera's. We cut through the fences. Todd opens one of the personnel entrances. We get the canisters and go out the same way."

Kim looks at Jim confidently. "Any reason why we shouldn't start now?"

Currently wishing he was on some other run, with some other people Jim feels a little bugged this women... but a good quality in a person is to admit when your beaten, so he glosses over how he feels and says confidently "sure, no reason at all, but as was said before are we going to use chem suits as a disguise?"

Ok, that was the last straw for Kim. No help from Jim to keep this job from turning into a massacre either. She wonders why someone thought to put her together with this bunch of unscrupulous cutthroats. What did she ever do? Hmmm.. this was definitely not good. These guys were planning to kill people for some pocket money. Would they kill her if they knew what she was wearing? This line of thought was getting very disturbing.

It takes just a few moments for Kim to get her act together again.
"Please tell me how a chem suit, or any other disguise for that matter, will be helpful once we are invis Jim. I think it only makes it harder to move without making noise."
Kim looks down to her high heels. Drek, that's gonna make sound too. No stockings, so I may leave some clammy footprints if I take them off inside.
"Todd, gimme your socks will you hun? It's time for action."

"Hang on a sec, if you guys are going in now I need to go into the system and prepair a few things first. I don't want to have to do stuff that I can get ready ahead of time while you are on the run."

Todd steps back to the dataterm that he has been using and jack in once more.

Mirage says, "Actually chem suits might be a good idea, I've got a clip of Neuro Stun mini grenades and an MGL-6. They're pretty effective, but it's a nerve gas and so respirators aren't any use, and it takes about ten minutes to disperse."

"Using these, if our stealthy approach fails, we can hopefully take out any opposition without resorting to lethal force. How much would three or four chem suits cost us?"

"That certainly is a good reason for those chem suits, but I'm willing to pay for all your drugs if it works faster than the gas." Kim says to Mirage and gives her a smile.

Todd unplugs the cable from his head and smiles, "Alright. I setup a local SuperUser account for myself on their host, so I can run around with less risk of setting off security flags. I'm ready to go when you guys are."

At that, he slips off his shoes, pulls off the socks he has been wearing for the last week and hands them over to Kim. "Those are my only pair, so I want em back when yer done."

"Hehe, that's funny." Kim says while taking them between two fingers. "They sure smell like you've been wearing them a while though." She waves them a little and before putting them in the pockets of her coat they look clean again.

"I see a problem coming and I would like to address it now so it won't be a surprise later on. I am a combat mage, and have always marketted myself as such. I am the guy they call in when they want to win a battle. Now, perhaps it was an error on our employer's part to have hired me for this mission, they obviously do not do thier homework very well, but the fact still remains: my spells and skills have not been trained for stealth.
Now, I agree that killing people leads to more complications than not killing people. I am fully prepared to assist this stealth operation in any way I can, I do have some skill in moving silently as well. But, I want to state it outright that if something goes wrong, I will go back to what I know best."

Strengthened by the unsuspected support of Mirage, Kim decides to take a chance on getting this job done the way she wants, without stepping on too many toes.

"Let's not jump to conclusions Firmpoint. Our employers have been lying to us and obviously they were right they could get away with it. After all we're still going to do this for them, so I don't think they are stupid. Perhaps they had a good reason for bringing us together too. It doesn't look like any of us is against killing, but at least I want to have a better reason. I'm not gonna stand here planning multiple premeditated murders. Those skills of yours may prove invaluable in the continuation of their plan. Surely this is only the beginning if we don't frag up. The faster we do this job, the more impressed our employers will be and how much easier it will be to negotiate higher fees in the future. This all sounds very easy and it should be, since there's nothing of great value inside. There shouldn't be any reason for us to delay this mission, so if we don't do this now our employers may start to wonder. My suggestion to solve our problem is that you leave your body behind when we go inside and scout for guards comming our way. That way if things go south you can just leave instead of killing everyone."

"So where do you want me in all of this? - do you want me on the inside? or shall I see if I can get us a van to use as a getaway vehicle and pick you up once you get out?"

"Whatever you think is best Jim, with the reservation that Firmpoint has no trouble keeping the three of us invis of course."

"You can cast on me last, hopefully my coat will hide me even if your spell doesn't."

"Before we go, does anybody have anything to cut through both fences with? Or do we need to go shopping?"

"Thats ok.... ive got a toolkit in the back of the car, thats got some clippers in I think" and with that Jim heads off to get the toolkit

Firmpoint just kind of looks curious "you want me to keep 3 of you invised at one time while I park my meat here and follow you in astral to look through doors to make sure it's clear? .... what the heck, I can try... who all needs to disappear?"

"Great!", Kim says cheerfully, "I'm ready when you are."