02:15:33 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

The view was spectacular, outside the cloudy haze from the earlier celebrations still lingered in the air, lending a slight warming tone to the scintillating myriad of lights across the harbor. The interior of the room was brightly lit by the antique glass glass chandelier, though that was hardly needed to see what was in the room. Dark mahogany hand crafted cabinets and stuffed hand crafted chairs and a sofa provided plenty of seating. The glistening back lit porcelain vases emphasized the luxurious tone of the room, creamy white walls, and elegant gold embroidered rugs providing elegant backdrop to the scene.

It had been a smooth operation, information provided by Johnny Wang had been confirmed with their own legwork. Planning had been straightforward, there'd been only one time they'd gone with a secondary option, and that had turned out well. All the pieces had worked, everyone had done their part, even if what and why they were doing it was almost impossible to figure out, but that was the nature of a lot of business here. The results had been spectacular. The eighth barge in the fleet of fireworks platforms had fired off it's payload exactly on it's new schedule. To the millions watching there'd not been too much difference, and not much to the team either, but for what they were being paid, the team had been very happy.

All smooth till this. The payoff.

No one was looking at the awe inspiring view outside.

In a pool of still glistening wet blood slowly soaking into the thick gold and silver hand embroidered oriental rug in the middle of the floor lay Johnny Wang.

The last member of the team entered, and closed the door behind, and they all stood quietly looking at each other.

02:15:39 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

As the team entered and noticed the body, Blaze almost immediatly ignored it and moved against one wall - looking in the direction of the rest of the suite. From their vantage-point at the doorway, the team couldn't see much of the adjacent rooms - and Blaze thought the murderers might still be around. Of course, he wasn't about to move forward until he saw that the rest of the team was going to help him search - if they just decided to bail on this obviously bungled Run, he wasn't about to stick around. He was pissed that it was looking like his payment died here with the Johnson - but he wasn't that attached to the guy, and had no intention of dying here too.

02:16 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"Mother! Oh God, mother! Blood! Blood!"

Fooey is dressed to party, but isn't feeling very festive anymore. The dwarf, looking rather pale, opens the room door, steps out into the hallway, and takes several deep breaths. He looks up and down the hallway before stepping back inside.

Fooey mutters, "I don't know about the rest of you. I'm getting paid before the police start seizing evidence". He looks around for the payoff before spotting the nine gift boxes on the table. He takes the one with his name on it, and tucks it away.

"Now what", he asks?

Should we drink a farewell toast to Johnny?

02:16 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Cloud winces at the sheer disrespect and loss of face that Fooey is displaying, he speaks to Fooey in a polite tone,"My friend, I suggest you put that back. The hotel has its own security. I'm sure we can work something out with the hotel concerning our gifts. Afterall, we must pay our respects our departed patron. Right now, we are a group of people coming for a Xin Nian yan hui (New Year's dinner). Take the gold, and that'd be a robbery gone bad."

Cloud scans the room intently, taking note of the feeds from his sensors that are being displayed on his image link. "Is there someone with some first aid skills? Can we do anything for him? Perhaps he can still be saved."

Cloud is not too concerned about the botched payoff. Afterall, if they survive with their reps intact, there'd be other jobs. But if their reps are ruined, they can kiss any chances of working in this town again, especially if they were wanted for the murder of their Johnson.

02:15:33 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Neko Mahou – Support Shaman

Hikaru was feeling good about herself and how well she did on her first big shadowrun. Things might not have gone perfectly, but no one got hurt and they successfully changed the timing on the fireworks display, for what reason was still unknown. It mattered not though to the young shaman, because she was in it for the thrill and adventure. The payout was just a sweet bonus on what was starting to be a good night.
As she walked amidst her fellow runners, her teammates, into the hotel suite to final out the job with the payout, the pink haired girl was thinking about all the dancing she would be doing through the night. ‘I think one of the clubs down the street was playing some something with a good beat to it. Maybe there will be some cute guys there too.’, she thought to herself as she smiled, her mind envisioning a huge dance floor with strobes, laser lights and the jumping throngs of people.
The girl was so immersed in her thoughts that she didn’t even realize that the people in front of her had halted soon after entering the room, causing her to run into the person directly ahead of her. Quickly regaining her balance from the impact, she furrowed her brow as her tail twitched in agitation. Looking over the shoulder of the person she ran into, Hikaru started to ask, “What’s go… Oh my god…”, her question quickly cut off after she saw the scene ahead of her. Eyes wide, the changeling brought up her right hand to her mouth, the sight leaving her breathless.

On a table farther inside the hotel suite was a pile of nine boxes covered in red and gold wrapping. Beside them stood nine glasses, which were assumed to be used with the unopened bottle of brandy beside them. The backdrop to this was a skyline view of the grand fireworks display outside the huge bay windows.
What caused her pause though, in the middle of the room, was the face down body of Johnny Wang, the man who had hired her and the rest of the team to perform the job. As she looked it over with her purple eyes, she could see that it was still warm but it was slowly cooling as the seconds passed. In her glasses’ AR display, she could see a giant red floating symbol for ‘Summon Medical Help’ or that’s what she figured it said due to it being in Chinese. Checking quickly for an aura, Hikaru knew almost immediately that they weren’t looking at a person needing help, but the cooling corpse of a, from what she knew, courteous and knowledgeable man.
Quickly moving to one of the walls, she put her other hand on it for support as she bent over. Her stomach lurched and she fought with it to keep her past meal from showing itself to the world again. It took her a few moments to recompose herself, but she couldn’t look at the body without feeling something inside her lurch a little.

Behind her, she sees hears the door to the suite open an extra time. As she looks over, she sees the short Chinese dwarf, Fooey, moving out it while starring at the body wide eyed. Seeing him quickly leave the suite to stand in the hallway, she closes her eyes and shakes her head. ‘I cant blame him.’, she tells herself as she hears the door open and close again. The scene before her gets more interesting as Cloud, their observer and over watch, scolding the dwarf for his outburst after re-entering and also for quickly taking one of the wrapped packages.
"Is there someone with some first aid skills? Can we do anything for him? Perhaps he can still be saved.", she heard the young man say to try and get control of the situation. Swallowing another lurch as her gaze inadvertently went to the body of Wang after hearing him ask the question, she quietly replied, “I don’t think we can do anything… He doesn’t have an aura and the… body… is only warm, not like the rest of us.”
Wiping her eyes as she thought about him being dead, though she hadn’t known him for very long at all, she continued on, “How can you be so calm, Cloud? He’s dead, here right in front of us. My God, he’s dead!” After her last outburst, she collapses to her knees, wiping furiously at her eyes as the tears wont stop and sniffling every once in a while.

02:17 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"Please stay calm. I've seen flatliners get resusitated before, but if he is really beyond help, perhaps we can help find who killed him. Getting excited does not help."

He turns to the other members of the team,"It seems that our esteemed employer has met with an "accident". Even if he is beyond our help, perhaps we may salvage the situation by alerting the proper people. We should alert the hotel staff, no? Does anyone else have a better idea?"

02:17 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Burn the place to the ground, to cover our tracks, and never look back... thought Blaze but he didn't vocalize his suggestion. He had beleived that some of the group was more closely tied to Wang than he was, and their reactions seemed to confirm it.

"Are we sure this place is clear?" he asked, gesturing deeper into the hotel suite. "Someone should call an ambulance at least - I suggest that those of us with anything to hide get the hell out of here." He wasn't sure how he felt about the loot on the table. On one hand, he wanted to get paid for his work - that was why he came all the way out here. On the other, good points have been made - taking it is nothing short of theft, even if it was intended for them in the first place. They would definatly be on the run afterwards.

"... can anyone tell what killed him?" Blaze used the word "kill" purposefully. Expending time and effort trying to save a man that had been shot someplace vital would probably just get everyone killed or arrested. From the amount of blood on the floor, Blaze wasn't going to get hopeful that he would pull through.

Still, if he did, he might be able to tell Knight Errant that the team had nothing to do with it.

02:16 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Wu Xian enters the room in a very good mood. Everything went smooth as silk on the run and he managed to get through it without letting his inexperience show.

His mood though quickly changes as he takes a quick look at their employer lying on the floor.

"Oh frag", the Asian male says in a barely audible whisper as his right hand reaches unconciously into the left side of his coat. He pulls his empty hand out of his jacket after giving the room a quick scan and not noticing anything out of the ordinary.

He turns towards Fooey as the dwarf moves to pick up one of the boxes. Wu Xian is about to follow the dwarf's lead but is stopped by Cloud's comments.

Hearing one of the others confirm what Wu Xian already believed, that Johnny Wang was dead, he looks at the faces around him and quietly says, "Maybe we should look around the suite, we might not be alone?"

02:15:30 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

The old man pated Wu Xian´s back, as they walked into the Delux Harbor View Suite. "He would have been prowd of you. Knowing when to fight -and when not to- is as important as knowing how to do so!" The aged guy mumbled, refering to the one tight moment during the last run, where the wrong move could have escalated the scene into a blood-bath, before the teams talkers could turn the situation.
He was about to ramble on about old times, as they entered the living room and instantly knew, that something was horribly amiss and it didn´t take him long to see what it was.

He took a moment to take in the scene in detail and request an AR-analysis from his com, while an agitated Fooey paced past him to the hallway and back in. When the dwarven hacker moved on to grab a package, the old man was about to object and start issuing command, to bring some order into the chaotic situation. Damn commie, so much for noble ideals. He keeps his tongue in check hwever, as Cloud speaks up for cooler heads to prevail.

"I would heed Cloud´s advice, he is as wise as he is farsighted!" Doing his name justice.

At the same time he took a step towards young Neko, genuinly pating her shoulder, the touch of the gnarled and callous looking hand feeling much gentler then it should have any right to be, even silk gloved as it was. "It´s allright!" Nobody blames a little girl for crying.

When Wu Xian speaks up and looks around, the ancient martial artist meets his eyes with a bitter looking face and nods. Then, still rubbing the cat-girl´s shoulder, he looks at Blaze and tilts his head, gesturing towards the foyer and bedroom.
It looks like Cloud will make sure that everything that´s needed is done for little Jhonny -he know´s I´ve got a kit and patch if it´s needed- and Mr. Root will make sure, nobody´s destroying any evidence here ... or place the false kind..

02:17 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"If you don't want your money, can I have it?"

"Let me see if I got this straight. You commit crimes for money, but you won't take the money you're due. You commited a crime less than three hours ago, and now you want to report one. Before you all break down and start confessing to everything you've ever done, I'm out of here."

Fooey heads down the hall toward the stairs.

02:15:33 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
PAN – Passive

Willow had taken the trouble earlier to get “dressed up” for the evening. Her long black hair was pulled back in a loose bun, held in place with black lacquer hair sticks with gold tigers, she wore tight black pants with knee-high black heeled boots and a shortened cheongsam top in the appropriate bold colours and tiger embroidery to ring in the new year. She had the full intent of hitting the club scene after getting paid, besides what better to do with hard-earned cash than spend it? All that had changed as she stepped inside the hotel room and found Johnny lying face down in a pool of blood instead of standing there welcoming them with a smile on his full face and his eyes dancing behind his gold-rimmed glasses.

The fact that he was likely dead, a quick shift over to thermographic and back confirmed it had happened quite recently, did not effect Willow like it seemed to others. She had seen plenty of dead bodies before, the only thing that gnawed at her uncomfortably was that it was her employer laying on the floor and the fact that the murder had taken place just prior to their arrival to the suite. Her dark eyes moved over the immediate surfaces in the room, her gaze pausing on the windows and the view of the harbor. She wasn’t admiring the scenery, she was more concerned with who might be admiring them. Carefully she walked over to the window shade controls, her heels leaving no trace of her path as she crossed the plush carpets. Pulling her leather jacket down to cover her hand she was about to nudge the controls with a knuckle to draw the shades and provide them privacy when she stopped and looked back at the team. A request was being sent to summon medical help which meant the time before they had company might be shorter than expected.

“A request is out for medical help. Perhaps we should make our investigation quick and private?” She spoke in soft, Chinese-accented English as she indicated the window shade and her intent to activate it.

She watched Chan pocket an elegantly wrapped box and the disappointment was apparent on her face. Yes they had come to get paid, but there was always the concern over maintaining guanxi here in Hong Kong. Right now they’d have to shift gears and start thinking about covering their tracks and or doing damage control with at least the Peninsula’s staff and security.

The party would have to wait.

02:16:55 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

He casts a red and blue side-glance at the other woman in the team, as she watches Fooey with obvious dissappointment, that mirrors his own feelings about the fellow local.

At least one of the little girls is not a total newcommer cry-baby.

While turneng towards the door, he quickly replys to Willow in a hollow sounding british english: "Yes, we should hurry to collect all available information and then make a choice!" Before he is even finished, he nods to Blaze and starts moving into the Foyer and on into the bedroom.

After a few seconds they are through - relatively sure that there are no enemies present anymore. Then he takes a few more seconds, to quickly scan the suite for hints.

02:17:12 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Neko Mahou - Support Shaman
PAN - Passive

The small Japanese girl jumped a bit as she felt something touch her shoulder, but when she looked up, she saw a kind face coming from the old man. "It's alright!", she heard him tell her as he patted her shoulder a few times. Hikaru was surprised at how soft and gentle his hand was, considering what she saw of them during the run.
Though he didn't say anything after that, he continued to gently comfort her just by softly holding onto her shoulder. The moral support ment the world to her at that moment, as she continued to wipe her eyes.
"Ojiisan... Gomennasai! Gomennasai!", she whispered in a light voice as she tried to stop the flow of tears. "I don't know why I can't stop... Why?", she continued, though the comforting hand was starting to work, the young Neko starting to regain some sense of composure. "Why would someone do that to Mr. Wang? All we did was mess with some fireworks...", she asked him as if he somehow knew the answer. As she looked up at him, she wiped away the few remaining tears, though her eyes were still ones of sorrow.

Breaking her gaze with the old fist fighter, Hikaru slowly grabbed ahold of his hand, and held onto it as she slowly stood up. Once she was fully on her own two feet, she let go and slowly leaned against the wall while looking around at the others, carefully avoiding the sight that caused her outburst in the first place.
"Shitsureishimashita... Sorry...", she repeated as she quickly wiped her eyes one last time as she sees him turn and walk away.

02:15:50 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Gabe - TechWiz
PAN - Passive

This was only going to be Gabriel's second New Year spent in Hong Kong. Two years already… Time flies by, especially when you’re young and with little care in the world. Both hands buried in his pockets, Gabe had been bobbing his head, gently whistling to a tune only he could hear, stopping now and then to allow a playful smile to dance on his face. Finding a “proper” way to dress up for the occasion had been something of a challenge. Most of the attires Gabe wore were either in line with the current teen trend, or just very very loud. Usually, it was something of a mix of both. Black dress pants, freshly pressed at the street corner of his flat, a long sleeve electric-blue shirt worn under a buttoned up short sleeve black dress shirt an a pair of matching blue shoes. Shoes and undershirt were on, of course, to match with his trademark electric blue hair, which didn’t seem any more in order than it usually was. Gabe was, to put it simply, dressed in a casually eccentric way.

It actually took the young field hacker a few seconds to realize what everyone was looking at. His eyes were already too busy feasting on both the payment resting on a table, and the magnificent view. Grinning for ear to ear, his eyes went down to discover what everyone had already spotted.

Immediately, his trademark smile vanished… and his already fair skin turned pale. His mouth became dry, and he felt as if he was swallowing rocks. What little was in his stomach crept up his throat, but stopped there.

He was dead.

Gabe turned his face to the floor, staring at a spot far enough from the body he wouldn’t have to acknowledge it… but still close enough not too look too wimpy. All his survival instincts were telling him the usual: to just bail out. To take the money and go… but his feet felt like they were stuck in concrete. No matter what, he just couldn’t move. At least, not yet.

I’d give anything for a Sunshine fix right about now…

All around him, the rest of the team was already kicking into gear. Some wanted, like him, to just bail out. Others were insisting on staying. No options were quite good, but none were either bad. If Knight Errant showed up, Gabe knew he had enough illegal ware just IN him to get him busted. That and the fact he was staying in Hong Kong illegally. But the young ex-pat had spent enough time in the ‘plexe to know that things probably wouldn’t come that far. Hong Kong as a whole had a very “foreign” concept concerning maintaining appearances and the likes. Rule of thumb was, the hotel would probably deal with the whole matter internally first, and only contact KE later in the night. Odds were, the team could deal with the hotel’s staff on their own terms.

As others spoke of the following course of action, Gabriel’s eyes started to slowly creep back up to Johnny’s stiff body, trying to concentrate more on the virtual overlay of the room, rather than the sight of blood and smell of death.

After a few seconds, Gabe tried to speak up. The first few words didn’t quite come out of his mouth, as he discovered his mouth was still terribly dried up from the sight of Johnny’s dead body.

“There ain’t a soul coming to the guy’s rescue. Room’s tight on signals… ain’t a thing broadcasting out of this place.”

The young hacker’s eyes became slightly unfocused on the scene. It had been rather obvious to everyone during the job that Gabriel was sporting a rather impressive internal commlink ware. The teenager didn’t even bother to hide the fact by using some dummy decoy commlink. A split second later, his attention was back to the matter at hand.

“Room’s nodes are set to total privacy…” he made a vague hand waving toward Johnny, trying to avoid looking at the body “which means every pulse jammed up and scrammed.”

He took the hands out of his pockets to run one through his blue hair.

“Ain’t no one showin’ up unless we call ‘em”

Gabe was about to continue when a slight frown came up on his face. He looked to his left, and lower right, to things probably only he could see.

“This placed buzzed… The nodes are real fraggin’ uncooperative… The place’s got full sensors running, but they ain’t recording a thing… Either Johnny boy had them off for privacy, or the mates who offed him got em. I wouldn’t be worryin’ too much about wireless signals going out of this place, or us being tracked by the same means…”

Man I need a chip about now…

Gabe’s left hand started to twitch, and the young hacker quickly flexed it opened and closed a few time to shoo away the nervous tick. His green eyes went to Hikaru, as he bit his lower lip. He probably felt as bad as the girl… but was just too proud to let it show through.

I feel for you girl… I really do…

“I’m fine with taking the money and running the frag away…” he said, looking toward Cloud “but I’m spot on with you it’s probably not the best course of action.”

Once again, he swallowed, hard.

“Let’s be ice cool, and keep it collected like we’d aught to be keeping it… but let’s not hang around chillin’ for too long…. Th’place givin me the creeps and gooses.”

02:17:12 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Gabe - TechWiz
PAN - Hidden

With a wary eye, Garbiel watched as he fellow Matrix cowboy took his price and made himself scarce. Doubt was already creeping back in. Everything in him was telling him to run the frag away. Now.

>>Commlink swtiched to hidden mode.
>>Stealth programming: active

Closign his eyes, he took a few deep breaths in and out to steel himself. Under his closed eyelids, he could still watch the virtual world swirl around him.

//Chat Box: Open
Gabriel: Let's be quick n' fast about this. Our guy's wired in the head. I'll crack it open as fast as I can... Maybe we can blackbox something out of him.

02:17 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Mike Root
PAN - Off

Mike is quick to respond when someone asks about first aid. First he turns on his eye recorders, making sure to quickly record the body and the area around it, for closer inspection later. He cautiously moves up to Wang's side, careful of where he steps, lest he disturb any potential evidence around the body.

He does a quick check of Wang's vital signs and gives a slight shake of his head to the others watching him, "It doesn't look good, but he's still warm. Someone had better call an ambulance. Fast."

After that he takes a better look at Wang and the area around the body. His keen, police trained eyes, looking for any clues. He even goes so far as to pat down Wang and lift the body slightly, just enough to see if Wang has any other injuries on the front of his body, or if anything is lying underneath him.

After that he will step away from the body and look at the others, "Has anyone made that damn call yet?"

02:18 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"Willow, if you would be so kind, please go down and inform the concierge that we have an emergency here and he needs to inform security and their in-house doctor. Keep making emergency calls to Mr Wang's medical care provider until you get through. See if you can find Fooey, but do not leave the hotel."

"Gabe, do what you got to do fast. Mike, do what you can for Johnny. Rest of us will search the room and practice our looks of concern and consternation." Looking at Hikaru, "Maybe not all of us needs to practice."

02:18:04 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Willow - Thief
PAN – Passive

Willow half-nodded half-bowed in Cloud’s direction agreeing silently to do as suggested. Before she took to the door she looked at every remaining member of the team.

“Keep the story straight. We came for a New Year’s celebration with a friend or an acquaintance. No lies if they can be avoided and don’t stab one another in the back.”

She was straight and to the point, very little emotion in her soft voice. She spared Hikaru one last look of consolation before screwing on her best face full of terror and concern as she dashed from the room and took off down the hall in search of Chan and then hotel security.

02:18:55 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Wu Xian waits for the old man to begin moving. When he does the young man moves in behind him to provide cover for the search. As he brings up the rear, Wu Xian carefully pulls out his predator and quickly attaches a silencer to the muzzle.

Regardless of how he feels about guns, it makes me feel better, he thinks as he gives the old man's back a half smile and then gets back to the business of covering him.

02:18:20 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Mike shakes his head at Cloud, "There's nothing I can do for him. He needs a doctor or a surgon or something..."

He gets up and paces the room, thinking. After a moment he catches his breath and settles down. "Ok, we've got maybe 5 minutes before hotel security shows up. Anyone with something to hide better split, we can meet up again later. The rest of us should fan out and look for anything that either, A) might incriminate us with tonights activities and B) give us some idea of what happened here."

He then begins circling the room, looking for any sign of the weapon, spots of blood, or signs of a struggle.

When he gets to the bedroom he carefully looks over the bed and after a moment he spots the long strand of hair. He carefully picks it up and examins it under the light. He then holds the hair to his nose and takes a sniff of it. After that he goes to the pillows on the bed and examins them more closely, even going so far as to smell them.

Getting up from the bed he slides the length of hair carefully into his pocket, then continues his search.

02:18:20 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Blaze's instincts say to split, but he decides to stick around and help out. When hotel security shows up - if things go badly, the group just might end up having to gun its way out of here... and he might finally see some action.

As the others begin to search the place, Blaze positions himself around a corner from the doorway, keeping his attention in that direction for any new arrivals.

02:18:20 Tuesday 11 February 2070, Yokogawa Ambulance Services, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, 30 Gascoigne Road, KLN

Specialist services third grade Han Jian had fallen fifty feet off of the roof before he woke from his sleep. Fortunately the two person high speed gyrocopter had an autopilot smart enough to avoid the ground. He left the software pilot running things as he piped in a full analysis of the incoming call. The fact the pilot had started without checking with him already told him it wasn't a standard pickup, and the location and initial fuel burn data reinforced the impression he received simply from being pressed into his harness from the acceleration.

The gyrocopter cleared the parking structure by a good 4 centimeters as high octane afterburners kicked in and boosted it's forward acceleration. Han Jian was already linking up all the communications grids he could and doing all the communications and jurisdictions checks as he blasted south. The Celestial Long Life Contract meant he could have a little fun with a fly by straight down Nathan road on his way to the pickup.

02:18:22 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

The masterfully crafted piece of technology wired straight into Gabe’s brain made his work fast, reliable and discreet. He would smirk away when people would fumble around with clunky AR gloves, clumsy physical interfaces and actual physical human-machine support. Direct Neural Interface was how the future was; and Gabriel was already there and loving every single second of it.

Electronic pulses were beamed straight over to his synthetic eyes, overlaying a complex grid of graphics, texts and virtual sensations only he could understand fully. With a mere twist of his own will, programs loaded themselves here and there, windows opening and closing as he began to work his way into Johnny’s commlink.

Node detected.
….. Establishing Direct Link….
<< Running Diagnostic >>

Well well. Looks like Johnny boy wasn’t just a plain suit after all… This might take a little more work than I thought…

Passcode: ******
ACESS DENIED
Passcode: ******
ACESS DENIED
Passcode: ******
ACESS DENIED

With a heavy sigh, the young hacker decided that a sweet and gentle approach wouldn’t quite cut it tonight. Time was of the essence, and his patience was already running out. He’d have to brute force his way in.

Has he cracked his way in using all the dirty tricks and OS holes he knew, Gabe broke the firewall in a few seconds, shattering it in the most unsubtle of ways… which the system didn’t quite like. Although Johnny was probably already dead, or soon to be, his commlink was still kicking strong to protect it’s owner’s precious data. Never the less, Gabe took on the node, grabbing it by the reins and pulling hard to make it obey. A few ones and zeros later, he was king of the hill. Booting back up the commlink system, he ran a quick activity report. All around him, windows filled with scrolling text hovered in place, the real meat world piercing thru their semi-opaque form.

Biting his lower lip to hold back a curse, Gabe felt a cold drop of sweat run down his spine as he read the activity log. His head on attack on the system had caused automatic defenses to spring up into actions before he had gain control of the node. Data had been lost. Intentionally. From what he could see, some specialized Agent had corrupted beyond salvage a few precise file. Nevertheless, unless he told his fellow teammates, no one would ever notice the loss of data.

Transferring everything still left to his own hardwired memory, Gabe then started to delete the activity log. It would probably been obvious to anyone looking that someone had cleaned the place up… but they’d never be able to tell who, when, what and how.

Gabe’s focus switched back to the meat world.

“I’m done with my own motions. I lifted every single bytes there was… Lots of data, and lots of it is crypted lock n’ tight as it should be.”

Turning away from the body, Gabriel walked to what he thought was the farthest spot in the room away from Johnny.

God I want a chip right about now…

Crossing both arms across his chest, the young hacker tried to take a detached and cool expression as best as he could. He still felt sick to his stomach… and couldn’t wait to get home. At least, he’d be able to hurl in private.

In the meantime, all he could do was sift through what he had picked up... and pray in silence all would go well. As much as he wanted to take his part of the cred and run the frag away with it... he couldn't bring himself to. This was his first time in the "big league". The next few minutes would weigh heavily.

02:18:15 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Willow - Thief
PAN – Passive

A quick dash down the hall while looking for Chan turned up neither the Dwarf nor any hotel staff. She noted the stairways as she ran past for later should they all need to get away quickly. Ninety-nine percent of the doors down the long hallway were closed and only one couple exited their room more than a little tipsy and arm in arm, enjoying the remnants of a New Year’s celebration.

Where the frag is the little halfer?!

Remembering earlier stepping off the elevator and seeing a small vending alcove with an “Authorized Hotel Personnel Only” sign, she made her way over there and firmly knocked on the door and waited for one of the various hotel staff to open the door. When they finally obliged she had worked herself into a convincing state of panic.

“The penthouse suite, Mr. Wang. There’s been an incident, he needs medical attention very quickly!” She tried to show some sense of composure keeping her voice low as to not alarm other guests and not inflame the hotel’s staff but the speed at which she spoke confirmed the urgency as she motioned to her commlink. “I’ve been trying to place a call to summon medical help, but with all the celebration my calls can not be completed. Please, alert the hotel’s doctor and call an ambulance!”

Watching the hotel staff scurry into action she moved out of their way and let them run the show. Once the plans were in motion she headed back to the room at a brisk pace.

02:18:15 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Neko Mahou - Support Shaman
PAN - Passive

Taking a few more breaths to calm herself down, the pink haired yound woman closed her eyes for a second and just stood there leaning on the wall. Her ears were twitching and rotating around, just following the sounds of her team mates move around the deluxe hotel suite, though she never really paid the twitches too much attention. With one last breath, Hikaru opened her eyes once more and pressed a few buttons on the commlink strapped to her hip, pulling up an AR view of the room on her glasses. Looking it over quickly, she pushed slightly pushed off from the wall and slowly made her way towards the front door, trying not to get in anyones way.
Reaching the front door to the suite, she changed directions slightly and opened up the small half-bath that was right next to it. Entering, she moved infront of the sink and just stood there for a second, examining her tear streaked face and how pitiful she looked. Turning on the faucet, the sound of running water could be heard as she just continued to look for a little longer, soaking in the look of her own purple eyes.

'My first big run... Why did this have to happen? My Johnson, which Dad set me up with, is dead... Right at the end of it all too. I mean, we were just about to be paid and party the night away until this happened. Then, I make a fool of myself by breaking down into tears and crying like a little girl... Oyaji must think I'm too young for this stuff now...', she thought as she just looked in the mirror before leaning down and trying to clean herself up some.
Pulling the hand towel off the ring beside the small sink, she dryed off her face, which looked alot better now that she cleaned it up, though there were conflicting emotions running over it. One could still see the sadness from before, but mixed in with it were a look of pity and anger she felt for herself. 'It's not fair that this happened... Mr Wang shouldn't have had this happen just for some fireworks... I shouldn't have to be dealing with this right now... All I wanted was some adventure and excitement, not finding my boss lying face down in his own blood... It's not fair...', Hikaru continued to think as she looked down at the water still running in the sink, swirlind down and around into the drain, before yelling, "It's not fair!"

02:20 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Hallway, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Fooey - Hidden
Vector Xim: Passive

Don't attract attention!

Fooey had gone down the steps at dwarf speed, before realizing that people don't run in places like The Peninsula Hotel. He paused and took a few calming breaths; then left the stairwell and walked calmly and purposefully to the elevators. He then pushed the down button.

02:19:07 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

They quickly scan the bed-, dressing- and bathroom for any dangers, before the old man begins to search them a bit more throughly, to make sure there are no monsters in the closets or under the bed. When Mike moves on into the bedroom, he receives a quick handsign that everything is clear and a gesture to indicate something interesting on the bed. Then he walks back into the livingroom, to see if anyone is treating his nephew.

"Mr. Root is done here? If nobody else can help Jhonny Wang, I´m going to give him a trauma-patch now."

After waiting for a moment, he moves to patch the shot man, unless anyone objects.

"So, I understand that we go with Ms. Willow´s advice, which means most of us ony meat once before, when Mr. Wang invited us to a dinner. I am Jhonny Wang´s uncle. We can tell them that Mr. Chan panicked and ran away."

Mike finishes his search of the suite back where he started, by the body.

"Damn, what's taking the ambulance so long?" He mutters as the old man apples the trauma patch to Wang. He knows it can't do much good with this type of injury, but it couldn't hurt.

"He still has a chance if they get here soon." He'd liked this Johnson, which, while not a first, was still a rareity in this business.

He goes over to the table with the "gifts" on it, and glances them over. If they are easy to open he'll take a quick look inside each of them to make sure nothing was stolen during the attack and, if something is different or unusual about them, it is better to find out now, rather then later when the cops arrive.

After he is done inspecting them he will retun them to the exact same place and formation that he found them in.

He turns back and looks over the rest of the team standing there.

"So, any of you know anything about Wang here?" He motions to the body, "Any know who would want him dead? 'Cause they didn't steal our loot, which rules out a robbery. Also, he seemed pretty well off at our first meeting. A guy like this you'd figgure he'd have his own security with him. Especially if he had enimies."

02:25:07 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Wu Xian takes his time moving from room to room, checking any obvious hiding places for any surprises. After finding nothing or no one hiding in the suite he takes the silencer off of his gun and puts them both away.

Now what do I do, he wonders. Knowing that he has no skills in investigating a crime scene he shrugs to himself and heads back to the main room to join the others.

02:26 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"Although it might be more believable if we were close friends and family of Johnny's, I agree we should just keep it simple. Since revered elder has taken the place of Johnny's uncle, I do not think someone else should be a family member unless quite far removed. I shall be just a friend of his."

Cloud examines the area around the suite and the connecting corridors for any clues that be available.

02:21:01 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Elevator, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

With an inaudible hiss and a change in air pressure the elevator doors slide open. A wave of tigers move to step out through the doors, but pause and bump against each other.

in english "Hey, this is the wrong floor!"

There are some giggles and purrs as the multicolored tigers push themselves back in the elevator to admit the new passenger. Most of the tigers are walking upright, and the wandering bit of revealed human flesh and clothes intermixed with real fur along with morphing real and AR images clearly indicate these aren't real tigers. Even if there seems to be a scent of real animal musk.

in english "C'mon, get in, is okay, you're too little to eat!"

A feline paw waves at Fooey to get in.

02:32:01 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

The harbor view abruptly faded out as the large window tinted itself opaque, though in a the brief moment before everything was obscured there was a hint of glaring orange light washing out the spectacular view across Victoria harbor. The rooms interior lit up in contrast, the area in front of the window in the living room and in a cone to Wang's body lit itself up in a warning yellow pulse. Several standard warning icons appeared indicating the unsafe zone. In the meantime the front door had opened and a Peninsular uniformed short caucasian woman with neck length cropped blond hair and brilliant green eyes rolled in a covered serving cart immediately after she declared "Room service!" in clipped native cantonese tones.

Setting the rolling cart to the side as she stepped in, she checked that everyone was out of the indicated warning zone before speaking clearly to the empty air, "Clear. On my authority, entry granted."

A small flash and a pop and the window fell out in a swirl of cool humid air, the scents of ozone and salt air slipping into the room along with the loud wash of high powered rotors. As the window pane flew up into the darkness on a swirl of smoke, the hovering gyrocopter completed it's maneuver, slinging a coffin sized capsule and a young man in crisp shiny white scrubs into the room on the end of about 8 meters of cable. The man wrestled the coffin unit over to Wang and simply dropped it over him. An instant later the lines went taut, and the man and glistening black coffin were dragged out and up.

With heavy winds and noise fading away, the uniformed woman moved to the window and ran a glue stick along the bottom and sides that she could reach, as she finished the window floated down and in place, the opaque tint slowly fading away.

The woman turned back as the glass panel eased into place, and looking over everyone with her piercing green eyes, spoke, "Hilary Green. The Peninsular Group wishes to know how they can be of service to our guests." The cool polite tone is at odds with the strong gaze she uses to sweep the room.

02:32:01 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Gabe - TechWiz
PAN - Hidden

Still leaning against the wall, in the same exact spot, the hacker simply gave a shrug to Mike as he spoke.

“Everything I could yap about would be wind. I know next to nothing about Johnny-boy… and this place starting to creep me.”

Crossing both arms in a relaxed manner, Gabe was in fact trying to hide that he was shivering. Next to him, a large rounded AR window kept him updated on the decryption routines he was running… all of which were going rather well. Not even a minute after he had adjusted the software’s parameters, it had cracked both encryptions. There wasn’t much he could make out, at least not yet… He’d have to take his due time with the files and scan them thoroughly.

Falling back in silence, Gabe decided it was better to let the “grown ups” run the show for now. There wasn’t much he could say or do at this moment. In a few minutes, security would probably be here, and he could leave this place for good. One set of problems would be over… but a whole new bunch would definitely spring up.

When Hilary Green made her entrance, and once Johnny was “taken away”, Gabe only gave her a quick glance. He had decided to play the “traumatized part”… which wasn’t too hard considering he slightly was. If he kept his usually smart ass mouth shut, everything would go well. Hopefully so…

02:32:01 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Blaze, too, kept his mouth shut, and his eyes on the woman. She was being polite, so she was still alive, but he was ready to fry her and her friends if she started to get hostile. Meanwhile, the seconds ticked by while he waited for one of his teammates to speak up.

02:32:00 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Willow - Thief
PAN – Passive

Willow had returned to the room, to the scene of Wang’s death like a good grieving friend or acquaintance would. She had managed to get a good but hardly thorough look around the suite before listening in on the simple plan for keeping their stories straight.

When the window shifted and the hotel’s employee walked in her demeanor changed. She was still playing a role, though she was becoming more business-like every second trying to figure out what avenues she could use to buy the team some leeway or an out if necessary. As Wang’s body was summarily removed in a most dramatic matter for those immediately in the room, the impact it had on the rest of the hotel’s guests was probably minimal at best. Willow just watched with wide eyes as the coffin was pulled out the window and the window quickly replaced. She hoped her amazement wasn’t shown across her face and her mouth wasn’t hanging open.

Nice trick, I’ll have to remember that one…

As the woman introduced herself, she took the time to study her features and only slightly relaxed when Miss Green referred to the team as their guests, for now that was a somewhat positive sign even though her body language didn’t match her tone. They had to tread carefully here, the slightest misstep and there would be hell to pay.

02:33 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"Ms Green, I am Mr Chao. As you can see, some of my fellow guests are quite distraught and I appreciate your concern for our welfare. As you may know, it is inauspicious to carry over debts over the New Year, I think Johnny may have invited us to clear any favors he felt he owed us, however small they may have been." He waves his hand at the line of gifts.

"Seeing his condition however, I hope the management will not think less of us for trying to lighten Johnny's karmic burden. Perhaps the lord Buddha will look upon his little repayment to each of us with favor. Should the management request the presence of any of us when the ceremony to ease Johnny's spirit is conducted, we would be honored to be present. Here are my contact details." He keys his commlink to send her his address, which he did not doubt she already had.

02:33:00 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong


Wu Xian is trying to remain calm while standing in one corner of the room. The wait for security to show up was starting to wear on his nerves. Finally though the wait ends and the game begins.

When the hotel employee comes in, Wu Xian doesn't pay as close attention to her as he should have. The process to remove the body though really grabs his attention and leaves him feeling quite impressed.

The the game really begins as the hotel employee identifies herself and one of the team starts to explain their presence. Wu Xian listens but keeps his mouth shut knowing how bad he is at smoothing things over. Mentally though he gives a nod of congratulations to Cloud when he works into the conversation a very valid excuse for the group taking the boxes.

02:33:00 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

The woman dressed in the elegant cheong sam dress with glittering smart embroidery patterns looked at the table covered with red boxes decorated in the traditional red lai si colors with gold decorations, then looked back at the speaker, answering in a strong quiet voice.

"Chao san, thirty taels of shanghai gold each is a sign of strong favor and fortune. It is the strength of these ties and obligations that keep a family strong and prosperous in times of crisis."

Sweeping her gaze across the group, then looking at Mr. Chao, "Do you wish us to summon the authorities to handle this matter?"

02:34:00 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"Ms Green, I have the utmost faith in your capabilities to handle the situation." Cloud continues in Mandarin,"Speaking for myself, I'd have no problems if things are handled in-house." The literal translation for in-house may also be takened to mean "within the family".

"Afterall, Ms Green, hao si bu chu men, huai si chuan qian li." (Good news does not spread, but bad news travels quickly.)

02:34:15 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Bending at her hips in a short bow in answer, Hilary Green straightens, continuing in cantonese, "Very well, the Peninsular Group acknowledges your wishes."

After a significant pause, and raising her hand to attract everyone's attention, "Is the Peninsular Group entrusting resolution of this matter to those favored of Wang san?"

02:30 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Fooey - Hidden
Vector Xim - Passive

Fooey uses the passcode supplied by the late Johnny Wang to gain user access to the Peninsula Hotel's comm system. He then hacks the system to obtain admin access to Johnny's suite. He can now see and hear the others via the suite's sensors. He spots Gabe leaning up against the wall, and connects to Gabe's commlink.

"Gabe, Jimmy Chan here. I'm outside in front of the hotel. The cops haven't arrived yet. I'll let you know as soon as I see them.

"I couldn't stay in that room. For one thing, I don't need another encounter with Hong Kongs finest. The last one didn't turn out so well. Your encounter with them will be a lot smoother if you keep my name out of it. Another thing, I didn't want to hack the hotel from inside that room. If security became wise, there would be no place to hide. Oh yeah, one more thing, there's a dead body in there! What a way to start the New Year. It's less than three hours old."

02:32 Tuesday, 11 February 2070

"A medivac chopper is approaching the hotel. No sign of the cops yet. I have a sneaking suspicion that the cops weren't called. According to the hotel's switchboard, Johnny Wang is not registered at the Peninsula, and that particular suite is vacant. I imagine the hotel wouldn't want to explain how that happened."

02:32:01 Tuesday 11 February 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

A red and a blue eye dart to the large window in shock, as it turns opaque. An instant later, a loud 'phump' echoes through the living room and a rain of diamonds falls onto the rich carpet, as the glass disintegrates into a myriade of small splinters. The boy feels the urge to run or hide, but his muskles won´t move. two or three small cans fly in from outside and explode with a loud boom and a blinding flash, filling the room with choking smoke that stings in the eyes. In terror he watches, as kevlar-clad, camouflage-suited SWAT-troopers swing in from the roof, their faces obscured by gas-masks and helmets. Yelling commands, the men wave around with big guns, while the door is rammed in and spills more men into the apartment. The mechanic rattling of automatic fire drowns out any other sound, as the woman at his side jumps up to ward him from the intruders, only to fall to the ground seconds later, her blood spraying the boy´s face.

The old man clanches his jaws, brushing the unpleasent memorys aside. Stepping away from the light surrounding Jhonny Wang, he concentrates on the hotel-employee entering the suite under a barely audiable, high-pitched staccato of pings. He eyes the serving cart suspiciously for a moment and his comlink confirms his impression.
When Jhnny is carried away, he sends an almost voiceless prayer after him. Then he takes a deep breath, down to the bottom of his belly and braces himself to speak up, shall the need arise, as Hilary Green introduces herself. He is pleased however with Cloud handling the conversation.

02:34:15 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Fooey - Hidden
Vector Xim - Passive

"That's what I call a cute trick. She just offered to let us solve and resolve, while the hotel does nothing and pays nothing. If we succeed the hotel gains face. If we fail, their only mistake was trusting us to handle it. How can the 'favored of Wang san' refuse an offer like that? She played us like a Weiqi master.

"Mr. Chao's mistake was asking her if we could take the gold, as if it were hers to give. She countered by asking him if we wanted her to call the cops. Mr. Chao asked her to handle it in-house. She handled it by agreeing to let us take the gold, and dropping the whole matter in our laps. She's good!

"Did you notice that pause before she made the offer? I wonder how many advisors she has in her ear? I wonder if Mr. Chao knows Go? I think it's time we evened up the sides. We shouldn't leave him to handle these negotiations alone. Our reputations are riding on this. Lives, too.

"Gabe, see if you can attract Mr. Chao's attention. Ask Ms. Green for a moment. Set up a conference call."

02:30 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Just when Gabriel was about to start running his decryptions ware on the data he had extracted, a disc shaped window materialized itself not too far away from him. With a simple mental command, the window was brought in front of his eyes and maximized, overlaying an AR representation of Jimmy’s icon.

“Ts’all chill chummer” transmited back Gabriel, his thoughts transduced into coherent words.


“I don’t dig it either… but there was just too many feathers to ruffle tonight for me to grab loot and make myself scarce. You did what you had to do; I don’t judge you, and I’d back you if need be. So, null presp.

02:32:01 Tuesday, 11 February 2070

“Got it. Call hasn’t be rung, if I’m still on the ball about the deal.”

02:34:18 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

“Hun? Sorry chummer, I ain’t really paying the attention I should be. I pulled a fat load of bytes off Johnny boy’s head link… sifting through it now for anything worth my time. I soon as I can crack the encryption, I’ll copy the batch for you.”

Running a quick hand through his blue hair, Gabe pushed his shoulders off the wall and walked over to where Green and Chao were standing, still talking.

He gave Green a sweet yet somehow shy smile, avoiding her eyes at the last second.

“Pardon my intrusion in your conversation Ms. Green, but could I simply have a quick word with my friend?”

His small hand went to Chao’s shoulder, very gently pulling him away from the woman.

02:35 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

"Yes, my friend?"Cloud turns towards Gabe, nodding to Ms Green, he says,"If you'd please excuse me..."

Cloud keeps his face as impassive and as inscrutable as he can.

Why did Gabe have to interrupt the conversation? He could have just called me on my commlink silently. Goddamnit! He's a hacker, he should know better. *sigh* I mustn't blame him. Afterall, he is just a gwai lo! But that uncouth lout of a mainlander...*sigh*

02:35 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

As he pulled Cloud away from Ms. Green, Gabriel started to speak in a manner none of the parties present had ever heard him speak. Actually, he spoke in a way some of them probably had never heard. His words came out fast, in a slightly slurred and unarticulated way. Here and there, some words sounded French, others English.

Inside, Gabe couldn’t help himself but chuckle. No liguasoft was about to decipher Québec street slang.

What he spoke about probably made no sense at all to Cloud, but the message that his commlink was routing to his senses made it a little clearer.

“Faque mon gars, jvoudrais pas faire poirotter” I’m routing a call from Jimmy “tout ce beau pti monde la icitte” click on Jimmy, conference is online “mais ya comme d’autres s’affaire que faudrait que je fasse. Faque tsé, si on pourrait juste embrayer un peu, ca serait pas mal lfun.”

Giving a slight pat in the back to Cloud, he winked at him, and gave him an ice melting smirk.

02:35 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Don't smirk, they've got cameras watching. Is the line secure? Cloud quickly types the message into his commlink and keying into the online conference. What is it you want, tongzi(comrade)? Cloud demands.

02:35:10 Tuesday, 11 February 2070 - Outside The Peninsula Hotel, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Fooey - Hidden
Vector Xim - Passive

"Me, personally, Mr. Chao? heh heh...

"I think now is a good time to get everybody's opinion before agreeing to anything. I'm in on whatever you decide, and I prefer no wetwork, and no dealing with the cops. I'm just one vote."

02:35 Tuesday, 11 Febuary 2070 - Deluxe Harbor View Suite, The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Neko - Support Shaman
PAN - Passive

Neko watched as the ongoing conversation, which she was having a hard time keeping up with, was broken by Gabe's actions. The whole situation was confusing and she was having a hard time keeping her senses about her since Ms Green entered the room. The woman herself was one of the reasons, or more precicely what Hikaru saw about her. It was by pure accident really.
Since she was in the front bath by the main entrance, she heard and saw the door open and the maid enter the room. By the time the changeling had made it into the main room where the body of Johnny Wang lay, the window had blown open. During the explosion and subsiquent burst of air from the chopper blades, dust kicked up into the girl's eyes, practicly blinding her to the physical realm. as the pain and tears caused her to clench her eyes shut and start rubbing them to try and get the dust out, she automaticly switched her vision into the astral.
Now, the young shaman was never really great at reading auras, to her mother's lament, but she knew enough to tell that Ms Green was awakened and that there was a spirit in the room with them. She watched as the spirit helped the awakened maid hold up and set the fallen window pane. By the time that Cloud started talking with Ms Green, Hikaru had finished getting the dust out of her eyes and shifted her sight back onto the physical plane.

The whole conversation was a complex dance which confused the girl some, mainly due to the lack of knowing the language and customs very well. She decided that it would probably be best for her and everyone else if she stayed quiet until there was something for sure that she could help with. It sure didn’t raise her confidence when Gabe interrupted and the conversation and started talking in a language that Neko couldn’t even make out one word.