Alice looks around and decides to speak up.

"Well let's say we do this while everyone is sleeping, and we somehow manage to get our way past all the personnel, who know all the nurses and doctors that work there. Then we have to deal with the guards that are wide awake and know every nurse that has treated Gio since he's been there. Let's say we silence them and then we have to deal with Sophia, all the while the Star is on the way, then depending on the outcome with her, we toss Gio outta window to a car. They get him outta there while the rest of us backtrack the way we just came, fighting off any new opposition, and hopefully can narrowly escape before the Star arrives!?"

She drinks some beer, then continues.

"I dunno about the rest of you all, but I don't really like that idea to much. If we are going through the window, let's hit em while Sophia is asleep, cut the glass. I mean that doesn't much any noise, does it? Then open the window, which still shouldn't make any noise. Then we can figure out how to keep Sophia quiet, maybe toss her out the window as well. Then that would leave getting Gio out the window, the guards shouldn't even be disturbed. And everyone leaves in one piece, and have minimum opposition to face. We can have Lex record video feed from the room, and loop it right before we enter."

She finishes her beer. Then replies to her own comment with, "This is just my idea of how it can be down quickly and very quietly. We can fine tune this, or even do something else. Oh and I can use climbing gear. But there is no way in hell I'm going in there as a nurse. I'm sorry, but I think that would just lead to instant conflict. Not to mention I need to drive the SUV to get Gio out of there."

Alice gets up and goes and gets another beer, she then settles back down to finish hammering out the details.

"I think you missunderstood me. I wasn't talking about the people inside talking their way past the gaurds...

A silenced gel round to the head is a quick, quiet way to take them out and pull them into the room to hide them. Mojo, what kind of spells do you have? Any illusions to cover us what we do? Or maybe something to stun them? Also, I've got some high end comm gear. I could likely hack their radio signals and jam them."

He pauses for a moment, thinking...

"Lex... do you think you could fake a call to the Star that there is someone going crazy elsewhere in the hospitol and our guys could get pulled away for a moment?

Oh, and as far as the glasscutting idea goes, that was already my plan for getting in from outside," Akuma says as he reaches into his pack and pulls one out. From the looks of it, it is very well made.

((ooc: if you have the eye for such things, you can see the glasscutter is rating 6))

"I can climb well enough if you need me outside, plus I can add heavy reinforcements if nessassary. I like the idea of pulling star off Gio's room. We might want to put a gas grenade into Gios room to knock Sophie out.

We might try pulling a alarm on Gio and saying he has to go to the OR now, and then just take him out that way, but that might not be very feasible.

My idea, probably the most notable, would be to go in as visitors to Gio, I know him and he would let me into his room without a problem."
She realizes she probably said too much, and bites her tongue before going on.

"I could always bring a 'bodygaurd' with me perhaps, then with two of you outside the window it shouldnt be hard from there. There are probably a dozen other options, but if Gio lets me into the room then it will probably be the safest thing, Sophie might be off her gaurd a bit then."

Rowan drops onto a faded bean bag against the wall in Lex's appartment listening to the wheezing sound it makes and it deflates.

"Too many things can go wrong with you all posing as doctors and nurses. What if an emergency happens? What if some nurse decides to pull rank on you two 'nurses' and order you to go help with another patient? What if you, 'doctor', gets pulled into another room for a consult?"

Lex pops open another beer and continues, "It's a public hospital. I'm still a proponent of using visiting hours to our advantage. I'm not sure how well being a visitor to Gio would pan out, because it looks like the Star are watching him, so the desk might alert the guards that more 'mafia goons' are making their way up to Gio's room. There are other patients on that floor, I could have the three of you go in as visitors of whoever's in 507, 506, whatever. That way you get waved up to the floor. I'm on the cameras, so I can tell when there's no one there but the two guards. When the coast is clear, you pop the guards, and make your way into Gio's room. Akuma, you can still be on standby outside the window. I like your idea of going outside through the window. That makes for the easiest possible extraction. Question though, who's the driver? Alice, Rowan, and Mojo are in Gio's room. You are at the window, and I'm here on overwatch. Are the three of you (A R M) going to rappel out the window as well?"

Mojo speaks up. "I don't suppose the place is made out of that cruddy stuff that they recalled a few years back. The stuff you can just melt your way through, are they? Goin' through from an adjoining room would probably be remarkably easy."

"Well I guess since I'm picking up the SUV tommorrow I can also be the driver, and in that case, I guess my ideas don't matter much." Alice finishes her beer and takes a deep breath and then yawns.

"Maybe several of us should go to pick up the SUV. It's a pretty good chioce for an ambush, if we're going to see one outside of the hospital."

"I have no problem with a group of people going to pick up the SUV in the morning. Okay we at least got one thing settled then. So how do we plan on getting Gio. We really need to work this out. Everyone has a different idea of what they think will work. But various ideas, whether good or bad, still remain simply ideas. We need to hammer out the details, figure out what we are going to do, and then execute it. So what are we gonna do?"

"I suppose one quick thing to do is to see if the two gaurds are Lone Star, they might just be Sophia's goons.. Can you look that up for us Lex?"

"The only thing I'd be able to do is hope that there's a zoom on that camera in the hallway and hope I can find some Identifying marks on the guards."

cant you log into star and ask thier computer if they have anything on Gio Bradly

Lex's eyes light up, "Ooh, now that would be a fun hack. It's worth a shot. Is it really necessary though? Be they goons or Star, they're gonna get geeked if we have any trouble."

"Yeah, but if they arent star, they might not get paged before we get up there." Rowan says. "Also we know they arent Carletto's goons or they we wouldnt be doing this run, which woudl leave Sophia's... And I think that would be a valuable peice of information."

"I wouldn't go as far as saying the gaurds will get geeks, especially if they are Star. A gel round works fine, but killing the Star is something that we should avoid at all costs.

What time are visiting hours and what time does the sun come down tomorrow?"

"If I remember correctly, the hospital Icon said that visiting hours were between 10am and 5pm. Since it's January, I'm gonna think the sun'll set early...probably around 4ish?"

"Well, we need to decide on what kind ofprep we need. If we've got to grab a nurse or janitor, that adds a day to our timetable."

"I don't think we'll need to do that. Like they said, its a public hospitol, you could just be visiting. I'd still like for myself and one more to go in through the window. We don't too many people walking through the door.

So lets get this fleshed out. Lex, do you think you could fake a call to those Stars and get them out of the way?

Who is going through the window with me?

Lex, can you get an elevator to take me to the roof without the rest of the system noticing, or should we have Mojo levitate me up?

One more thing... what gear are we going to need for this?"

"Getting you in an elevator won't be a problem....Assuming there IS an elevator that goes to the roof" Lex goes over to the blueprints lying on his coffee table and starts to go over them. "I don't know about faking that call. I have to make sure they're Star first, otherwise we'd have more trouble on our hands. Once I find out that they're Star, I'll see what I can do."

"We should try to bring as little as possible. This is supposed to be a quiet extraction. Hopefully our only problems will be Sophia and those two guards. Even better if we can get Sophia out of the way."

Alice curls up on the floor in a corner, knowing now what her role is, she's nowhere near as interested in the plan.

Akuma goes over the blueprints of the building carefully for several minutes.

"It doesn't look like I can get to the stairs that head up without passing a nurses station. Mojo, you mentioned just levitating me up there. Is that something that you can handle without putting yourself out too much? And who wants to be on the roof with me? Lets figure out what each of our roles will be."

"If you need someone who is a good climber that would probably be me," Rowan says, "I dont think Ill be as useful inside the building as I could be outside it anyways."

"Ok. So Rowan and I come in through the window. Lex will be on Matrix duty. Alice and Mojo, you guys ok going in through the hospitol?"

The ork looks at Akuma a bit oddly. "Maybe... me bein' a tusker an' all might make it difficult, at best."

"Well I guess I could, but I thought we just agreed that we needed a driver, and I sorta figured that was my role."

"Hmmm... How good are you at climbing Mojo?"

"Fair." He shrugs. "Maybe waiting in the getaway vehicle and holdin' invisibility spells over the people comin' down the side would work better, though. An' then if you can get Gio to the window, I could levitate him down. That's a lot harder to do while bein' shot at."

"Sounds like a good idea actually.

Ok, as of right now we don't have anyone coming in through the door... Hmm... That could work out to be the best thing. If Rowan and I are quiet enough going through the window, maybe we can do everything without tipping off the Star."

Alice smiles to herself.

The rest of the night passes slowly for those who continue to feel the pressure of time and the confusion over what exactly Sophia is doing and what might her presence in Gio's room cause. During the night, Lex takes a moment to hit the hospital's grid and look for any changes that the team should be made aware of. And, by about 1 in the morning, everyone feels satisfied with the way things have been arranged and moves on to sleep for a few hours before meeting Jimmy back at the Rose with some alternate transportation.

Waking in the morning, the team prepares itself to do some business. Moving to respective vehicles, you are all able to drive from Lex's back to the Rose with a minimum of trouble. There are some emergency vehicles on the highway -- apparently an impromptu game of joust over the k-rails went sour on the gang members invovled and a few of them had to be scraped of the concrete. Other than that, it seems a peaceful morning -- cold and partly sunny.

Arriving at the Rose a little before 9:00am you don't see Jimmy in the parking lot -- or an SUV for that matter. Waiting around a bit, he finally pulls in at about 9:15 in a slightly battered by otherwise good looking vehicle, "Hi all. Sorry I'm late. The dealer I had to borrow this one from was a little reluctant to let me cash in my favor. I talked him into it, though. You guys need anything else? Oh! one more thing, too: when can I get the car back? The dealer wants it back, more or less in one piece if possible." The way he says dealer seems to broadcast "chop shop" to your minds.

"We might be able to get it back to you tonight or tomorrow. And we'll do our best to keep it one piece." Alice inspects the van before hoppin into the driver's seat and waiting for anybody else to get it before they take off.

Having followed everyone over on his bike, Akuma just sits there and keeps a watch over everything going on. Once people are ready to go, he'll follow them back.

Giving the SUV a once over, testing the lights, the flashers, the radio, etc. Alice gives Jimmy her nod of approval. <<OOC: you don't see anything that alarms you about the vehicle>>

<<OOC: Okay, so this probably happened prior to you guys getting the car from Jimmy, but it doesn't need to. Assume this happens where ever you guys want it to. >>

Okay, Lex thinks to himself as his sits down at his deck. Let's do this.

Jacking back into the Matrix, Lex re-enters his poker hall. Grabing his fedora and his monocale, straitening his vest and tie, he steps out into the virtual highway that is the Eastern Pennsylvania Grid. Zipping quickly towards the node for St. Luke's Hopsital, Lex is quickly able to re-enter the public area of the node. Pulling his fedora down over his eyes, Lex avoids talking to the receptionist this time and moves immediately to the same, lightly travelled corner that he previously used to deck into the hospitals more private matrix areas.

Okay, what to do first. he thinks after he gets in. We want to know if those guards are really the Star or goons that Sophia may have hired. Heh. I guess we can assume that they're not Carolettos, or that Family'd know where Sophia is ... Taking a deep breath, Lex writes a quick program that points the way back to the node controlling the camera information. Fanning his deck of cards, this time the 4 of diamonds lifts from his hand and moves off down the hospital grid's virtual hallway leading him to the same node of cameras. Looking right and left for any IC that might have been triggered so far, Lex sees nothing an enters the camera node.

Pulling up the camera for the fifth floor hallway, Lex still sees the two guards outside room 508. Virtually grabbing the camera's controlls, he attempts to zoom in on the guards but to no avail. Shit.

Moving out of that camera, Lex decides to bounce back into Gio's room to see if Sophia is still there while he tries to come up with any other way to figure out if these guards are Star without having to deck the Star's computers. Looking through the camera's eye into Gio's room, Lex is unable to see a thing. Panning the camera left and right to see if there is some thing in the the way of the camera, Lex can almost make out a rippling surface in front of the camera. It looks almost like someone may have thrown a dark sheet or pillowcase over the camera's lens! Damn, looks like someone may have guessed I was here last time.

Pulling out of the camera, Lex pauses in the camera node for a moment. How would I be able to find out if the hospital has the Star inside of it from within the hospital and not from within the Star's personel files. Lost in tough, Lex begins to shuffle his virtual deck. Wait a minute! If the Star is in the hospital, there was probably a memo or a letter sent out to hospital employees letting them know about the situation! Especially the administration! Now all I need to do is find that memo and get out before I screw anything up.

Jumping to his feet and collecting his cards, Lex exits the camera's slave system and re-enteres the hospital's main grid. Again looking around for any reactive IC that may be following him, Lex notices a small syringe that seems to be floating right behind him. Interesting. Quickly analyzing it, Lex fixes his monocle and twists his icon's head 180 degrees to look at the needle. Holding up the Ace of Clubs, and looking through a small mark in the center, Lex is able to determine that it is a HospiProbe v7.0. Probe IC. Crap -- my tally could be huge depending on when I triggered this little guy. With a quick flick of the wrist, Lex drops a small, concealed hold-out pistol into his right hand, turns, points it at the needle, and fires. Lex's viral code hits the Probe's icon which turns a sickly green color for a moment and then sparks out of existence. Quickly gathering the code fragments, Lex stuffs them into the box from his cards and puts the cards back in over top. Got it. But time to move quick.

Taking a moment to look around once more, Lex sees nothing more about him and so quickly runs his browse utility to home in on the files subsystem. Fanning his cards, the Jack of Spades lifts out and leads him down a dizzying path towards the filing room. Using the Jack to pick the lock on the virtual room and entering the hospital's records, Lex runs a quick search for the words Star, Gio, Giancarlo, 508, and guards finding two files. Quickly grabbing them both, Lex scans them. Sure enough, one of them is a memo describing the situation invovling Giancarlo and tells of two Lone Star guards posted at the door to his room. The guards are on a rotating 6 hour shift and it looks like there is always one awakened and one mundane guard. Hospital staff were informed to help them in anyway possible and to get out of the way if anything "out of the ordinary" happened.

Getting what he came for, Lex exits the hosptial's node and returns to his poker den. Dropping his cards on the table, he exits the matrix, sits up and looks at the rest of you, "Well, that was a little more interesting this time. The guards are the Star, but it looks like there might be only the two outside his room."

<<OOC: I'll assume that Lex tells you all about the run and what happened including that it looks like someone has a cloth over the camera in Gio's room. >>

Akuma frowns.

"This is not good news. If one of the Star is awakened, that makes things harder than I hoped they would be. We maybe need to rethink our plan..."

Rowan looks at Akuma, "we already knew Sophia was awakened, so I dont think it will change much." She puases to think, and then continues "We might want to make sure the guards are being handled a bit before we come down the outisde, that way we can have them off gaurd and we can come at thier backs."

Akuma shrugs, "It does change things in that now we need someone to deal with the Star while you and I go in from the window. Anyone want take on the task?"

Lex rubs the back of his head, "Well this brings up two more points for whatever plan you guys might think up...We certainly don't want to attack at shift change. 4 of a kind always beats 2 pair. I don't know if I should even bring this up, but maybe there's something that can be done about the shift change? It may be too complicated for this extraction, but what if we can make it so that there's a short unsupervised gap? That would eliminate the need to neutralize the Star in the first place. I don't want to keep delving into the Hospital's grid though. Let's just say I don't like needles..."

Akuma frowns in thought for a moment...

"Exactly how do you plan to pull that off? Oh and there is one other thing we can be sure of now... they know that someone is looking in on them and will likely be on guard."

"The best bet is to hit them as soon as possible, they know something is up and the more time we give them the more prepared they will be. We dont have much time to bring this capper to a close, so instead of letting star have time to bring in backup we should hit them as soon as possilbe." Looking at Akuma, "Do you think we could climb down the building without beeing seen in daylight?"

"Mojo could keep the car running while Alice and Lex deal with star? All we need is a distraction to get Star out of the way while we take Gio with us, then we can meet back with them at a later time perhaps? In any case we need to get going post haste."

"I'd really rather wait for dusk before doing things, working durring the day can be more trouble than its worth. Mojo, do you think you can do an astral recon of the room without getting spotted? We should make sure he is still there and that the guards aren't sitting there just to throw us off. It doesn't have to happen now, but sometime before the run would be good.

If you insist that we go in now, I'd like to be on the inside, and I'd like to have Mojo there with me. He and I can deal with the Star, while Rowan goes in through the window to deal with Sophia. If fact... Rowan, what do you think about crashing through the window? That would distract the guards and when their attention turns to the room, Mojo and I strike from behind."

Mojo shrugs. "They spotted me last time. No way to tell if this time would be easier or harder, really."

"I could bust in the window, no problem" Rowan smiles, "Im sure Lex could trip all of the alarms in the whole building if we really want a distraction." She grins widens, "This is starting to sound like a candy store smash and grab job now isnt it?"

Akuma sighs... "Yeah, a little bit, which is something I hate. Alright, if thats how it has to be, then thats how it has to be. What do you guys think of this...?

Mojo and I go inside. Mojo, you got something up your sleave that can keep us disguised, right? Rowan, you get on the side of the building, either by getting to the roof and rappelling down, or using a grapple line and climbing up. When Mojo and I get near the guards, we'll let Rowan know over the comm and she crashes into the room. The guards get up to go into the room and check things out. As the enter, Mojo and I strike at them from behind. A gel round to the back of the head should do the trick. Its then three of us to deal with Sophia, which should be something that can happen quickly enough. I grab the target and throw a harness on him, then we're all out the window.

There are a few options to the idea as well. Maybe Mojo and I can just get the jump on the guards before Rowan comes in, that way she isn't stuck in the room to deal with Sophia by herself. Mojo, how good are you with illusions? I got an idea for getting us inside. Its a public floor, but it work great if you could be pushing me in a wheelchair and making me look like an old man. That way I could keep a blanket over my lap and hide my gear there. Lex, we'll need you to deal with any weapon detectors installed at the front door, and the camera in the hallway outside the targets door.

Well.. what do you guys think?"

Akuma sits back, ready for anyone to chime in with something.

"Well I didn't see anything about MADs when I was on the hospital's grid, but if they've installed any in the last 12 hours, it shouldn't be a problem. As far as the cameras, I have that covered."

"I didn't think they would have MADs, too much metal passes through those doors. I was more concerned about chem sniffers looking for ammo, but if its not a problem, then that just makes things easier."

Akuma looks around the room for any more ideas.

"Lets just stick with the orriginal plans, it had most of the kninks worked out anyways. Lex and Alice on the inside, Akuma and I on the outside. Mojo can stay in the SUV as backup and he can always be present on the astral if need be. The only thing we might want to worry about is an accelerated timetable because they know we are comming." Rowan nods at Akuma, "If you are okay with them knowing we're probably going ot hit them after dark, then lets wait. "

"In any case we can always pull a few suprises on them, fire alarms, or maybe a small bomb or something, just enough to get thier attention where we want it as this all goes down."

Lex looks up with surprise, "Me on the inside? So you don't want me on overwatch for this? Well I guess technically you won't really need me on overwatch. If we need a fire alarm tripped, someone could just pull it. This isn't Aztechnology we're talking about here, it's just a public hospital. Actually, I wouldn't mind going in on the actual run. I'm not just a deck-jockey; I can handle myself fine on a run."

Akuma seems a bit confused as well.

"Well, there are a few reasons I like the new plan better... One, we now have two Mages to deal with, not just one. I'd really like to have Mojo with us so he could offer some extra defence against them.

Also, it may be a good idea to have Lex watching those cameras in case something tries to sneak up on us. Plus, he would be able to suppress any alarms that go off. At this point, I don't think alarms would work for us. Lex could also watch the phones and make sure that when the shit hits the fan, no nurses call for security.

If the everyone dissagrees though, I'm willing to compromise. I just see a logic in these things, soka?"

"I'm with Akuma on this one. Although the smash-and-grab idea could work, it could also get messy, and I'd just feel better on watch trying to keep the heat off you guys"

"Its up to you guys, I dont really care so long as it works. Alarms might not be bad for us if we use them to our advantage, but whatever, I just want this run over with." Rowan's patience seems to be wearing thin. "I never said I wanted this to be a smash and grab job Lex, thats just how it is starting to look, even with Akuma's plan. Also I'd feel much more comfortable with someone else on the outside if things go wrong, as is Alice is only staying in the SUV, and It might be really really useful to have her as backup. "

"However, if we take Akuma's plan as is, the best way to go is to have Lex turn ventilation off in Gio's room and just toss a stun grenade inside the room. Once Sophia and Gio are out, we take Gio, if the Camera's are controlled we might not even have to deal with the Star. Hell, if we can find some other way to get at the Room I have some narcojet rounds that could neutralize Sophia early on. Then its simply controlling the Camera and dealing with at most one spellslinger."