Akuma nods, "Lets get on with it then."

Gwyn takes a cab to the Rose and sits at a table facing the door. She pulls out a mystery novel and begins reading as she waits for Geoff and the team.

@Gwyndlyn
As you enter the Rose you are immediately confronted by Tiny, the ubiquitous troll bouncer. Not tiny at all, you see Tiny eyeing you up as you move past him. "Hold on, honey. Gonna need that gun you're packing."

"Aw, now you wouldn't want a women walking these streets at night without a little protection, now would you?"

"Nope. I wouldn't. But you're not walking the streets while your sitting in here enjoying a bowl of the soup of the day: Tomato. Hand it over."

Sighing, Gwyn removes her side arm and hands it to the troll who places it in a marked cubby hole and hands Gwyn a small note with a number so she can reclaim her weapon when she leaves.

Entering the Rose you see that is a rather nice establishment with five other patrons this evening. From the board behind the bar you can also see that tonight's specials include not only tomato soup but also grilled cheese sandwiches! Taking your seat, you pull out your novel and begin to read.

"Hey Don, can you give us a ride to the Rose?" Rowan asks.

Gwyn gets hungry as she reads (because trying to solve a good mystery novel always gives her an appetite ) so she orders a grilled chesse sandwhich and tomato soup. She puts the novel down only long enough to eat and then picks it back up.

@All but Gwyndlyn
The Don nods and calls over Alyssa. A brief conference between the two yeilds Alyssa's car keys into Rowan's waiting hand, "Just don't get someone killed in this one," the Don says with a hint of regret. He didn't kill Alice--nor did his Family--but you can tell that he feels partially responsible for her death none-the-less.

"We won't," Rowan replies, stepping into the car. "thanks."

After the team gets into the car Rowan drives over to the Rose.

Once there the team walks into the resteraunt, and Rowan locks the door.

Walking past Tiny, Rowan hands over her guns and says, "take care of them please, thanks." She winks and walks into the resteraunt herself.

She looks around and see's Gwyn in a booth towards the back and walks over. "Hello, Gwyn?"

Akuma's hackles rise as the comment about Alice, but he lets it go. He wasn't close that close to Alice, but just the same, she was a team mate and shes dead now. Rolling his shoulders to work the stress out, he follows the others outside to their new ride.

Once inside the Rose, Akuma hands over his pistols and katana to Tiny, and takes his ticket without a word. He follows the team inside the place and gives a nod to Gwyn.

Gwyn returns Akuma's nod and then turns her attention to Rowan. "Yes, I'm Gwyn," Gwyn replies, "But I don't believe I got the pleasure of your name when we spoke on the phone. Why don't you all sit down and we can do introductions." She smiles and gestures at the seats across the booth from her.

"Im Rowan," she starts, and looking at the other memebers of the team she introduces them each by name.

When introductions are finished she sits at the booth, inviting the rest of the team to sit.

"We are trying to finish settling the aftermath of a mob war, that includes your job of finding Geoff's family. Do you have any information you can give us? Any information about yourself you feel you'd like to share?"

"Basically we know the two people who held his family are now dead, and we are on a very stepped up timetable to find them. Three or four days maximum."

Rowan sits still, waiting for Gwyn to respond.

"In terms of personal things I want to share all you need to know is that I take my job very seriously," Gwyn replies.

"In terms of finding Geoff's family I've been informed of three places where they might be. Two places I've staked out and didn't see much of anything. One place I staked out had a report of a young girl being taken inside, which is of note because it's a male strip club. The other place that I haven't staked out yet, a hotel, had a report of two people taking what appeared to be a mother/daughter pair into it."

"My thoughts is that we split the team in half. Two check out the motel and two check out the club. Get in and get as much info as you can about security and the general running of the place. If there are cameras where are they? If there are guards where are they and when do they change shifts? That sort of stuff. We can do that tonight, meet back tomorrow and decide wich place to hit for the breakout."

"Do we know if there were any others that may be guarding them? I know you said the two henchmen who took them were dead, but should we assume that there is still one or two people guarding them?" Gwyn pauses for a moment and then adds, "I guess that's another personal thing you might want to know...I tend to always assume the worst. Then when things turn out bad, they seem better."

"Do you really think that we should split up? If things go bad for someone, it could be wise to have the others around as backup, no?"

Gwyn considers for a moment and then replies, "I think we'll have to risk it. Two people are less conspicuous hanging around than four. Plus we'll get more done, faster and we're running out of time as it is."

"Ok. How do we want to split up? Girls and guys?"

Gwyn drums her fingernails on the table a few times as she thinks.
"Well, I think we should try and split so all 'talents' are covered if you know what I mean. For instance, I have my gun and my magic, so if one of you has magic abilities then they should go with the other group so things are even and well covered for both groups."

"Rowan and I are muscle, Lex is our Decker and Face. Why don't you and Rowan stick together and Lex and I will do what we can. Where should we head?"

"Sounds like a good idea, me and Gwyn can look at the Hotel while you guys look at the strip club. But don't get sidetracked okay?" Rowan winks.

Akuma snorts in reply. "Check. Come on Lex, lets roll."

"Oh don't worry, I don't think we'll have a problem with Mr. Happy over here," Lex pokes Akuma, "I'm not thrilled about the idea of splitting up, but you're right. Time is of the essence. Both groups need to keep in contact with each other at all times." With a nod, Lex gets up, does a quick once over of the bar again, and heads to the gun check cubbies.

Akuma gives the two ladies a nod before turning to follow Lex.

@Rowan and Gwyn
Exiting the Rose, collecting your weapons, and hopping on Rowan's bike, Gwyn and Rowan take about 10 minutes to drive from the Rose to the location of the hotel that Gwyn's information told her could be a target location. The building is small and actually a motel -- the rooms all exit to the outside, rather than into an interior hallway. There are two floors, the second floor having what looks like one continuous walkway around the central parking lot area. There are four cars in the lot, the office light is on, and the vacancy sign is lit.

On the other side of the street, the Lehigh Valley International Airport, Inc. seems to create an experience of artificial daylight. The runway and directional lights give the area a multi-colored look and every few seconds, the light on the becon tower for the airport swings your way illuminating the entire front of the motel.

@Lex and Akuma
Taking the address from Gwyn, it takes you close to 20 minutes to get to where you're going. Aparently there was so Go-Gang activity on the highway and Lone Star shut the place down to deal with the gangers so you were forced to re-route on side streets. Arriving in one of the more downtrodden areas of Allentown near the old Fairgrounds, the club is only one story tall, but an exit on the side shows you that there is at least one basement. There are seven cars in the lot, but if there wasn't a large ork sitting outside the main entrence you probably couldn't tell that the place was open as their windows are tinted. The ork is already eying your car.

Sitting in the car for a few minutes, Lex tries to get a sense of the joint's clientele, if there are any coming or going. "So what do you think? If there's a little girl here, chances are she's in the back with the strippers. Maybe we can talk our way into the back, or do you have any hidden talents I should know about?" he says that last bit with a smirk.

Gwyn looks at the rooms to see if there are lights on in any of them. "Well Rowan, should we get a room and see who we can see coming and going...or not coming and going? Or should we just straight up ask the receptionist if a woman and her daughter have cheked in within the past five days or so?"

"Likely hood is a lot of mothers and daughters have come here in the past five days. I think it might be enough to convince them we need to look at thier security tapes, and just scan those. If so we need some reason that doesnt point ot use caring about some mother daughter pair that appeared here." Rowan thinks, trying to find the appropriate lie.

"Perhaps we just tell them we need to see if there lot camera's picked up a car that might have driven by here in the past week? The lot should give us enough coverage to note any incomming cars, we can check it against the cars they were driving. We might even catch a glimse of them making it that much easier to identify."

Gwyn nods approval as Rowan talks and then says, "The security tapes are a good place to start. I'll flash my P.I. business card and tell the person at the desk that we're investigating an abduction and got a tip that a suspect stayed here and that we'd like to check the security tapes from the past week to try and verify that tip."
Gwyn unbuckles her seat belt, gets out of the car and waits for Rowan to follow her.

"Works for me," Rowan says, "but I dont know if we want to tip the bad guys off accedently do we?"

Rowan gets off her bike and follows Gwyn.

"Lets just head inside and take a look around. If I need to sneak in, we'll worry about that later."

"I understand not wanting to be seen, but it's just a strip club. We don't exactly have images we need to worry about. Besides, I could stand to blow a few nuyen while we're here." With a last look around for anything suspicious (well relatively suspicious), Lex hops out of the car and makes his way towards the entrance to the strip joint.

"I don't think we'll tip anyone off. If anyone is watching out windows and such they'll just see two friends getting a room for the night. Only the desk clerk will know...and one person is easy enough to keep quiet," Gwyn says as they walk toward the office door. She checks the windows of the rooms their passing to see if anyone is looking at them.

"I guess your right. Lets just hope they arent paying the clerk to keep his ear to the ground, eh?" Rowan smiles.

@Lex and Akuma
As you watch the "clientele" you see that it is mostly middle aged men, and some women. The ork at the door is giving everyone a cursory glance and did turn one guy away, but you couldn't tell why from where you were sitting. It seems like most of the patrons arrive alone and are of varying metaraces, though you haven't seen a troll. As the door opens, a burst of light -- blue and green -- spills out into the night and you can hear the beats of the techno/dance music that strippers must be performing to at the moment.

@Gwyn and Rowan
The windows stare blankly back at you. Most of the shades are drawn, and it seems like when the shades are opened, the room looks unoccupied. As you approach the office, you are very nearly deafened as a large passenger suborbital comes in for a landing in the airport across the street on a trajectory that takes it right over your heads.

When you get inside the office, a goth-chick teenager is sitting behind the desk idly chewing gum that she's wrapped around her left index finger while paging through a magazine. From the muffled volume of her headphones, you doubt she even heard the suborbital over the harsh chords of her "entertainment." She doesn't even look up as you enter, probably not hearing the pleasent tingle of the bells connected to the office door.

Gwyn walks up to the desk and calmly places her business card over the page in the magazine that the girl is looking at.

@Lex & Akuma
As you approach the ork at the door, he looks you over. "No weapons, mate," he says pointing at Akuma. "You can leave that thing in the car, but we don't want it in here." You do notice, that he's only indicate on of the two predators that you're concealing. He says nothing to Lex.

@Gwyn & Rowan
The goth-chick is startled by the interruption and looks up, squinting her eyes in anger at you. In a voice much louder than necessary, she speaks over the music in her headphonse, "What!?"

When you answer, she looks at you exasperatedly, as if it's your fault that you're not talking over her impossibly loud music and have therefore forced her to remove her headphones. The cacophony that is emitted from the ear pieces as they are removed remind you of the sound that a cat would make if being raped by a great dane, "What did you say there?" she asks you, still speaking loudly over the ringing that is undoubtably still reducing her hearing abilities.

Akuma shrug and heads back to the car, making it obvious that he is taking the gun out so the ork can see. He then heads back to meet up with Lex and heads in.

@Lex & Akuma
After Akuma removes one of his two guns, the ork seems content. He must have missed the other one and he goes back to watching the streets and idly smoking a cigarette.

Entering the club you are immediately assaulted by sound and light the likes of which were most definately absent on the streets outside. The lights of the club flash on and off in a disorienting pattern causing shadows to jump and shift on the walls constently drawing your attention as you look around the room. The music playing is mostly synthesized electonica with a heavy boost to the bass; it feels like someone is beating you with a mallet each time the synthetic bass drum hits a downbeat. You can only imagine what it would feel like if you were actually standing near the speakers on the other side of the room.

The club has a dozen tables arrange haphazardly throughout the room. There is a bar to your left as you enter and a large stage before you. And, from the "entertainment" on stage you can certainly see that the clientele of the club is even more select than you would have assumed. Performing on stage as you walk in is a young man, perhaps 16 dancing while all-but-naked. His eyes are glazed over, as if he really isn't focusing on what he's doing. As you watch him for a moment, you realize that there is a datajack artfully covered by his hair.

Squinting through the haze of cigarette smoke and flashing lights, you can see the patrons of the club are paying you no interest. There are other performers, all of similar age and the same gender, all topless and wearing tight shorts moving throughout the patrons serving drinks and snacks. There are doors on the left wall marked with the ubiquitous symbols for restrooms, as well as two doors on the right and left hand sides of the stage.

Lex's ear dampening kicks in as his senses are assaulted by the deafening synth bass. Glad I got these babies installed His eyes taking a moment to adjust to the party lighting, Lex looks towards the stage hoping to see some topless beauty, and he's greeted by....well, not the topless beauty he was hoping for. Over the transducer to Akuma, "drek! This isn't a male strip club, this is a MALE STRIP club! The girls are gonna get it the next time i see them."

Eyes...goggles...nothing...

Quickly, but not too conspicuously, Lex averts his eyes from the stage, trying to purge the image from his cybered brain, at the same time cursing his memory implants for not letting him.

Rowan looks at the attendant, "We're invesigating a case, we need to look at your security tapes for the last few weeks."

"I'm Detective Lori French and this is my assistant Marcy Deutsch. The case we're investigating is of a delicate nature and any help you could give us would be most appreciated. We're looking for a woman and her child that have gone missing. Here's the picture we have." Gwyn takes the photo out of her pants pocket and places it in front of the girl. "Have you seen them?" She asks. (She goes dual natured to see if the goth is awakened. If she is not Gwyn casts Analyze truth).

@Gwyn
The goth is not awakened (to her probably eternal dismay) and can see the Astral impressions of your spell begin to work as she looks at the picture. "Can't say that I have. They been kidnapped you say?" She sighs, "Nothing that interesting ever happens to me."

Your spell lets you know that she is not lying -- on either comment.

"Can we see your survalence tapes for the last two weeks? We might have an ID on the car they were driving, I'd like to know if it drove past here." Rowan says to the goth.

@Rowan
She raises a pierced eyebrow at your question and looks you over for a moment. "Look, chica," she says pointing to a camera situated behind her in a corner with a shot on the desk and the door, "that's the only camera on the premises. We use the same tape every week so you can look at the tape for the last couple of days, but I haven't seen 'em in here and if I haven't seen 'em the camera probably hasn't either. Anyway, I'd have to clear it with my boss if you're going to look at the tape."

"Well, if the tapes don't show the parking lot they won't be much help, unfortunately. We'll follow up some other leads. Thanks for your help," Gwyn says as she turns and walks for the door. She gestures with her hand for Rowan to follow her.

When they get outside, Gwyn tells Rowan her idea. "I want to go back to my office and check this place out astrally. Would you be willing to watch my physical body until I get back?"

Rowan shrugs, "sure.. why not, or we might just have a look from across the street."

"I'd feel safer in my office. Besides, I don't want anyone to see my body slump unconscious to the ground when I project and get suspicious," Gwyn says.

@Gwyn
Hopping back on Rowan's bike and heading out, you take a final glance back at the office. With a sigh you move to turn away, but something catches your eye. The venetian blinds shift, almost as if someone were peeking out at you from inside the office.

Akuma comes in next to Lex and shakes his head. "Awful..."

His eyes dart around as he checks the place out. When he realizes there must be a hiden door, he does what he can to spot it.

@Akuma & Lex
Looking around the club, you don't see any obvious signs of a hidden door. In fact, the wall in between where you are and where you both think a hidden room should be is mostly bare, only blocked by a few pictures. The only doors you see are the ones on either side of the stage.

As Akuma looks around, however, he does notice one thing. Two of the club's patrons seem to be paying more attention to the two of you than the others. Both are seated at the tables that are closest to the two doors. They're human men wearing plain clothes and after studying you both for a few moments, they turn away, but not towards the stage. Both just kind of sit there and seem to be waiting for something.

A young man, probably about 17, comes up to you, "May I take you to a seat, sirs?"

Gwyn acts like she didn't notice and gets on the bike. She whispers to Rowan, "We're being watched from the office window. Act naturally and see if we can find a secure place around the corner I can go astral from." She goes dual natured one last time to see if there are any magical presences in the hotel at all, but focusing mostly on the office.

Turning to the young 'man', Lex flashes him a smile, "Oh please do."

Over the comms, "We need to check out what's behind those doors. At least one's probably a place for private shows."