"Esther Fader." She tosses her head at the russian woman making arrangements at the desk, "She always so cheery?"

Esther cranks up her audio enchancement seeing if she can catch what rooms they were going to be in.

Juan winks at Esther. "Perhaps you should go over and strike up a conversation. Your eternally bubbly spirit will undoubtedly rub off on her."

Edana's harshly planed face furrows even more dramatically. Who was this guy? He certainly wasn't her reclusive and anti-social roommate. But then, she wasn't quite herself at home either. "I'm not here for chit-chat." Her eyes cut to the russian woman, a cigarette dangling from her lips as she peels several notes off a stack of scrip. "Do like to know what to call people though," she mutters.

"She can be.....efficient at times but her work is solid." As Sora speaks she takes the moment to look over the rest of the crew as they trickle in. "It's an occupational hazard from working these types of jobs but she knows what she's doing."

After paying the dwarf manning the reception booth, which was pretty much a small slit with a huge ballistic glass window, cash, she folded the stack of scrip into one of her numerous pockets. Maglock key in hand, she approached the team.

As she spoke in her thick russian accent, ashes fell from her cigarette and unto the dirty green synthcarpet.

“Glad you could join us” she said to Sora with a brief nod.

Truth be told, Ludi was damn glad Sora was now aboard. Having a familiar face around would calm her down... at least a bit.

She looked over at the other four operatives, opened her mouth as if she was about to pass some sort of remark but closed it around her cigarette. Her boots thudded on the floor as she simply exited the lobby towards the room she had just rented.

Team
You follow your fearless leader out the lobby and along the rundown building. She stops in front of door 17.

"These are ours for the next 48 hours." She gestures to 17 and 18.

Inside, it's everything you would expect from a ratty motel. Small table with chair, lumpy mattress on a cracked box spring, and a trideo display that has one color miscalibrated so it's like watching a 20th century 3d image without their antiquated glasses.

At the very least, no one should bug you while you are here.

Penta looks about nonchalantly as he enters the rooms. "So, where should we begin?"

Sora smiles for a moment at Ludi. At least I know someone on this job. She falls into step behind the rest of the group as they make their way to the room or HQ for the moment.

She feels some of anxiety leave her as the first irregular speaks up and starts things rolling. "How about bringing me up to speed with the plan so far?" She moves as she talks and picks a spot of relatively clean wall to lean against as she unwraps the scarf from her face and neck. She takes a moment to look over the various runners assembled for this job.

Esther is a tall troll woman with an angularly planed face and swept back medium-length horns. She has to stoop to enter the room and looks around taking in the shabby state with unfeigned indifference. Her skin is a deep black, her eyes a bright crystal blue. She glances at the mirror and settles the fawn-colored coat self-consciously.

She takes a deep breath and turns to the room, looking at the others, "No plan what-so-fragging-ever yet." She seems a bit put off by the lack of direction and, since nature abhors a vaccuum, she steps in. "Name's Esther Fader. I'm the knuckle-dragger." She looks anything but dim.

"What say we get started by you lot sharing everything you know about the two companies Takeda and Ikara. I don't have anything on them, though I do have this..."

//Incoming Data Transfer
//From: Fade
//
//
//Accept?

Those accepting the file will see the video of an Evel Knievel-style escape from a clinic rooftop on the outskirts of Tacoma.

The File
Enclosed is footage of a newsfeed from a gang-based attack on a clinic in the industrial sector between Tacoma and Downtown. Halloweeners attacked the clinic using explosives and incendiary devices, all the while screaming for drugs.

Someone has made several notes in the file, cross-referencing it with fragments of police reports in which on site security was executed with an almost military precision. Several guards suffered broken limbs from non-lethal rounds being fired in tight bursts.

The anonymous comments draw attention to what he feels is a glaring example of a cover-up. It appears that with a fifty foot start, the gangers were able to make a forty foot jump with a motorcycle. The biker ends up sacrificing the bike by jumping off of it to land safely onto a nearby freeway overpass. A flare of light from below indicates the bike exploded.

Penta skims through everything mentally, then nods at the file Esther shares.

"From what I know: Financially, Ikeda is...well, they're doomed, it's probably just a matter of time.

"The clip indicates a lucky rider, I think...But the attack's details make me wonder. I can't see a company in the kind of financial trouble Ikeda is in being able to afford assets capable of that kind of precision."

Looking over the file footage and noticing the same comments as the rest. "So we're looking at a staged hit to cover up whatever this teams of runners real target was. Do we have any idea what they were really after?" Sora opens a new file in her field of vision and begins to make notes of her thoughts and impressions at this point.

A'ja watched the file footage a couple of times with all the cross-references in place along the way. She spoke softly while the vid feed looped in her field of vision.

"Ikeda might be doomed financially, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't have something valuable enough to use as a form of payment." She shrugged slightly and her eyes shifted focus for a moment before returning to look at the assembled group.

"They were working heavily on the Awakened Genome project, rumors flying about them going after some of Dunk's cash even. Both of them were working on two opposite spectrums of advancements. Ikeda going for the bioware and magical set while Takara more cyber and matrix oriented. It’s not really a secret that Takara’s looking to snap up anything and everything Ikeda’s selling off as of late, and they’re not being friendly about it either.”

Juan watches the news clip with interest, pondering the possibility that magical support could be partially or entirely responsible for the apparently superhuman motorcycle leap. He might be able to uncover an answer if he were actually at the site where the jump took placed, but there's little he can do with AR footage.

"So, the question remains...what are we going to do?"

As she continues to review the files, Sora begins to speak, her voice carrying a slightly distant quality as she divides her attention between the meeting and scrolling text.

"I would suggest a two pronged approach, I was led to believe some among you can easily move amongst the high and mighty in the corp world while the more street elements of the team look into this Finn person. We need to verify what exactly the minor executive was referring to in the memo and we need to find out if this runner is out or still needed to be extracted. If he still needs to be sprung we'll need to do it."

She looks around the group seeing if she was on target with goals.

Juan shrugs. "Sounds good t' me. It's to my understanding that Mr. Finn is a man who represents a considerable security problem...since dealing with such problems happens to be a specialty of mine, if no one else objects, I will place myself on the team that moves against him."

Esther nods, "That sounds like my area too."

"I can manage a move against or among the corp execs. Wouldn't hurt to have a little backup however."

A'ja's green eyes moved over the cast and crew of this production and wasn't surprised as to how people were falling into line between the two objectives. She just wondered who else would hold their own in the social circles.

"Excellent. For now let's have Juan in charge of the team handling the Finn problem and A'ja will be heading up the team tackling the issue of getting us more information from the executive." Sora makes eye contact with each individual as she assigns the tasks in question, making sure it was ok with all assembled. "Since we're all professionals here, I will let each of you determine where your strength lies and decide which group to assist." Again a quick moment of eye contact with the remaining members.

Esther looks at Juan, "All right. Let's move to the other room and throw our brains at this." She looks at Ludmilla and Sora, "Holler if you have any insights. Or if you're sending anyone else over."

Juan nods. "Aye, it would be prudent to begin with the utmost haste."

Once they've set up shop in the next room, he sits down cross-legged on the floor, leans against a closet, and gazes at Esther. "I believe that the first step should be to acquire information regarding our mark, particularly his present location. Since our employers have moved against him before, we may be able to requisition any previous intelligence they've gathered, though there's a very real chance that anything they have may be outdated. We can overlay that with any information we can extract from our own contacts and see if we can put a coherent picture together. What do you think, cherie?"

Penta quietly joins Juan.

(OOC: I am alive, folks. RL will not keep me down.)

Sora waits a moment to make sure everyone on the team has sorted themselves out before joining Juan's group. "If you'll excuse me for just a moment, I'll check with what conatcts I have and see if we can find more out about Finn" She steps a little out of the way as she drops into AR to begin the process of reaching out and calling in favors.

After entering several cyphers and passwords, she accesses her list of known and reliable contacts. She looks over the list and decides to leave Sosofu off the list for the moment. If they needed to they could seek him out if and when all the other leads ran dry.

<< I am looking to contact a runner working under the name of Finn. I need to arrange a meeting with him as soon as possible. Any information on this individual or his whereabouts would be greatly appreciated. >>

She sends the message out, leaves AR and rejoins the other runners.

Sora
Within seconds the first few replies trickle in, with more coming in over the course of several minutes.

Daisy Q lets you know that he doesn't move in any of the circles that she does. Zha Min Su has a similar response, though mentions that a woman called Temple has mentioned his name. She referred to him as a psychopathic killer who'd just as soon shoot a person as talk to them.

Jimmy remembers a guy who knew a guy, who may have sold some caseless APDS rounds to man calling himself Finn. That was about six months ago, he's a regular customer of another seller though.

You hit gold with The Suit who can put you in touch with the right people for a simple finder's fee. 100 or a favor for later, your choice.

After reading through the flurry of responses, you are able to pick back through your memory. Finn never crossed words with the Asian syndicates, at least not in a memorable enough way for people to talk about.

Sora quickly reads through the replies and looks to Juan. "We're in luck on of my contacts can put in touch with the right people, people I assume that can tell us more about this Finn character. Are we game?'

Esther scratches her chin, the callouses on her fingers rasping on calcium deposits along her jawline.

"Sounds good to me. Are you meeting with them alone or are we tagging along? VR or face-to-face?"

"Good question, let me check." Dropping back into AR she pulls up the message thread to the Suit.

<< I am interested, I just need to know the format for the meeting. Face to face, AR, etc. Money is attached and my thanks for the rapid reply. >>

Sora
<AR will be faster, if you want face to face, it will take more money and a little longer.>

The Suit acknowledges the 50 transfer and sends over an LTG address for a secure AR meeting. Contact will take about thirty minutes unless you want a face to face.

After Sora makes her calls, Esther makes some inquiries of her own. "Sora, will we be joining you?"

//Message to: Taylor
//Re: Finn
//It's 8-nano all over again. But I don't want to go in
//totally blind... know anything about this guy?
//--Fade

//Message to: Random
//Re: Hello Crayola
//Long time. Hope you're healing up okay.
//I have some questions for you about a guy
//named Finn. Details attached.
//--Fade

Sora allows the blur of AR to fade away and returns to her senses. "Yes please, I admit a certain.....discomfort with AR but that's the fastest way to meet this contact. The meeting is set for thirty minutes from now."

Esther nods. She looks at Juan. "So. Roomie." She squints at him. "What gives? You following me or something? Should I be worried?" A smile tugs at the corner of her mouth, blue eyes glinting.

Fade

//Message to: Fade
//Re: Finn
//Beyond the footage I sent you, this guy is a ghost.
//He pops up on the grid in reference to a bar
//called the Paradise O, some charity work a few years
//back.
//--Taylor

//Message to: Fade
//Re: Hello Crayola
//I'm patching up. Heard his name tied to a
//caster named Kayla--they have beef with Darke.
//--Random

Esther replies to both messages with a brief note of thanks. She dismisses the windows and looks at the others in the now-small-seeming room.

"Well, small fragging world. Finn is connected a few years back to the Paradise O. And there's some connection to Finn in that footage we saw."

"Gonna watch that clip again, I'll holo it, maybe trid will give us some better perspective." She queues up the snippet and sets her commlink on a chair she drags to the middle of the room.

She runs several analysis algos while it plays. Her Agent would compile a report after it finished. It's not that she's expecting to learn anything new, but the UBL-N forced the players to watch film of their matches. She hated the mind-numbing dissection, but admitted that the guys who really ate that shit up were better than she could hope to be.

Some lessons sink in faster than others. She sends the 'play' command and leans against the wall, eyes focused intently on the film.

Penta watches the film closely on the trid. He's used to watching tape after tape of his ops in after-action reviews, picking apart the actions of others even as his own actions were picked apart.

His eyes focus intently on the trid, seeing if there's anything that jumps out at him upon another run-through.

Sora also draws nearer trying to glean anything helpful from the footage.

Penta
Filtering out the sound from the room to focus just on the recording, you hear a cacophany of sirens coming from down below the camera angle. Obviously, the footage was taken by a news drone some height above the building. Just before the explosion, you hear muddled by all the other sounds, a van door sliding shut.

Sora
You quickly focus on the biker in his insane jump. At first is appears that he is fairly solid and muscular, perhaps an ork, then the silhouette changes and you begin to differentiate two forms on the bike. The pilot revves the engine and jumps off the building, obviously falling short of the freeway above. At the top of the arc, the daredevil stands up and kicks off his companion to gain the height needed to grab the edge of the freeway. Without its primary pilot, the cycle continues its fateful voyage down to explode against a support pylon. Reflecting against the rider's visor are brakelights.

Fade
Having seen the footage before, you focus on items that may not be immediately obvious. Watching the perimeter rather than the focal point, you catch a few frames of silhouettes on a large plank. They eerily float across the gap without support, reminiscent of a recent bio-coffin in a Ravenna hallway.

Film Watchers
Comparing notes with each other, and going back over the film frame by frame, you concur with one another's observations. It is apparent that the biker was meant as a distraction for the media and security forces, while several figures escaped the roof through awakened means. There is also evidence pointing at a van being parked on the freeway above the building for at least a short period.

"It seems there was a layer beneath this, perhaps there is a way to find out more about the other vehicle?" Sora looks to the others. "A hacker may be able to find grid guide information or better video of the van? We might also want to see if there is any information to be gained from the remains of the other rider on the bike?"

"I was watching with my ears more than my eyes. I ask a serious question: Did anyone get the license plate?" Penta asks. "In this age of transformable plates, it may not be perfect, but it could be a lead."

A glance at Sora. "Perhaps we should check if Lone Star picked up the body?"

Exec Team
After laying out plans and sorting through information about known quantities, and unknown areas, you decide that certain answers need to come in before you move forward.

Ludi places a few calls to Watanabe and their corporate liaison for Takara while A'ja double checks the materials for any hidden leads. Answers trickle back in.

Watanabe's liaison office tells you that the offline storage facility was sublet from Prestige Technologies. Prestige is a small time outfit that specializes in secure off-line solutions to larger firms. One of a dozen in Seattle alone, that arose overnight following the Crash and Corporate Court mandates that every system be scanned before being allowed back online. The site is located in Bellevue.

Finn Team
With a nod of assent from the other team members, Penta places a call to a few friends. Messages are left asking for some information about recent events on I-5 and a local clinic. Other team members reach out to their own information brokers, hackers, and busy-bodies.

LoneStar did collect a body and is running a full autopsy on it. ID scans were inconclusive, meaning SINless, but they are running DNA through criminal databases to find a match on cold cases.

The license plate was registered to a van whose internal transponder is recorded as being over thirty miles away at the time of the incident. Law enforcement is running up against a myriad of false transponder signals, though it appears that a few volunteers within the shadow community can trace the van for a nominal fee.

Penta makes a few keytaps, and transfers the necessary fee.

The dark haired woman nodded slowly as Ludi shared the information she'd obtained on the storage facility from Watanabe.

"No leads on the author of the memo then? Let me do a bit more digging in that arena, call in a couple of favours for information perhaps. If we know where the stolen data came from, perhaps it's time to start scratching the surface of the facility itself and see what we can't scare out of there for info."

She wasted no time flipping through her comm's phonebook and dialing up Asher and began to review the memo with a greater scrutiny.

"Maybe I'm just dense, but has anyone put together what this bit of film has to do with our assignment?"

"We've got a lot of leads, but I don't want to go chasing this stuff down without knowing what this film is."

She shakes her head and stands, horns nearly brushing the ceiling as she stoops, "I know it's weird that I don't know, since the film was sent to me, but my contact hasn't yet responded to any requests for clarification."

Her hands reflexively check the placement of various weapons. "Also, anyone got eyes outside, if Finn or Ikeda don't want us to connect the dots, it stands to reason they might track Watanabe's security personnel." She turns toward the narrow window by the door and cracks the blinds, bright blue eyes scanning back and forth.

Finn Team

With the payment from Penta acknowledged, the spider begins crawling across his web looking for small morsels that had been captured, bits of data that would bring the van to him. The answer would be to you within the hour.

A chime sounds on Sora's commlink, letting her know that it was time to attend the meeting with her people. Those who were going with her had to devote half their attention to navigating VR for a few seconds as they make their way to the virtual conference room.

In VR

As you enter the room, there is a shift that the system registers as a pulling sensation in your gut. You recognize the effect of an anonymizer system routing data into and out of the room. Good news, if the meeting goes badly, the contacts can't trace you. Bad news, the same could be true the other way.

There are three androgynous humanoids, composed of liquid metal, reflecting back your icons at you.

"You needed information?"

A'ja
While you wait for Asher to answer, your mind runs circles around the past trying to reveal a clue from the document. The tone is reminiscent of several individuals, a reflection of corporate culture more than individual writing styles.

"This is Asher."

The words if identity click the last few pieces together for you about the memo, it's written specifically to be difficult to match to a single individual. Sentence structure varies from one section to the next. You've seen pieces like this designed for counter-intel insertion into Ikeda's systems.

Keeping your tone smooth so that there would be no clue to your fixer that you had found a breakthrough, you fill him in on the info that you need.

"I haven't heard anything specific recently, though their falling hard enough right now that any contracted employee could just walk away and Ikeda doesn't have the resources to stop them. There have been mass-layoffs and cutbacks. Many work contracts have been included in the purchase agreements for divisions of the corporation.

"I'm not sure if that is a blessing or a curse though..."

Sora gives a nod of greeting to the trio that arrived in the virtual space, she feels the slight nausea from the VR feeds. She pushes it aside and attempts to look open and friendly. "We were hoping to find out whether Finn was still playing in the shadows. Rumor has it that he is currently in some form of cold storage..."

In VR

There is a disorienting moment, when the bodies seem to turn to one another, though their faces slide frictionlessly across the liquid to continue facing you. The center figure speaks.

"By all reports, he has been retired from the field. What is your business with forgotten faces?"

All three continue to look at your assembled group, though their bodies suggest that a private conversation is happening.

“I appreciate the info Asher, I owe you a drink one of these nights soon. Perhaps at Electra’s next week ok?�

After a hearty deep chuckle came across the line and additional pleasantries were exchanged in parting she killed the call and once again reviewed the memo before her to be certain she was seeing what she believed to be in front of her and not just what she wanted to see.

Re-reading it twice to be certain she finally looked up and focused her attention on the gruff Russian across the room who was to be her partner for this portion of the job.

“What if this whole job is just smoke and mirrors? A ploy to hand-deliver the death blow to Ikeda but make it appear as if they shot themselves in the foot to take the blame?�

Sora tries to shake off the cold chill running up her spine at the unnatural sight of the faces sliding across heads. "We have questions to ask that only he may be able to answer, is it possible to arrange a meeting with him? I think we are more than willing to free him from any obligations that maybe limiting his freedom and time." She layers the words with deeper meaning, hoping to communicate their desire to extract him if needed.

In VR

"Messages told to us will reach his ears. If he deems it necessary, he may retake the field and meet with you. As far as obligations, do you know what you are asking or merely fishing for more information?"


A'Ja

Ludi looks to you, weighing the words.

"It's possible. I can have our people look into it. Mr Watanabe does not like to be played or have his agents turned into legitimized criminals. Though, until he decides that we are to do something else, I suggest that we follow our orders."

The Russian's cigarette bounces precariously with almost an inch of ashes hanging on before she finally flicks them away.

"Let's look into the data site."

Now leaning her back against one of the room's bare walls, Ludmilla pinched her cigarette between two fingers as she pulled on it. She had for the past hour jumped from commlines to commlines, talking to various Watanabe employees in various cities in various countries. And she had pretty much come up dry answer wise. At least, nothing that could really be useful to them.

She was a shooter, not a thinker. This whole thing was starting to itch on her nerves. Back at the office, she ran mostly security details. High risk protection. The kind of jobs that almost guaranteed you'd get shot at. She had the luxury of always traveling light. The told her where to go, and what to do when she got there. No questions. This was something else all together. Odds were, she had been chosen for the assignment for two reasons; because she followed orders without any questions, and because through her work with the FSB, had come in contact with a lot of.... irregulars. She fit amongst them. No matter how business like and professional Ludmilla could become, she wasn't one of those clear and clean cut security professionals.

Ludmilla took the cigarette off her lips and crushed it along with a dozen others in a small plastic ashtray on the table nearby. She lit herself a new one.

“What if this whole job is just smoke and mirrors? A ploy to hand-deliver the death blow to Ikeda but make it appear as if they shot themselves in the foot to take the blame?�

The woman's voice brought her back to her senses.

"It's possible. I can have our people look into it. Mr Watanabe does not like to be played or have his agents turned into legitimized criminals. Though, until he decides that we are to do something else, I suggest that we follow our orders."

She offered a cigarette to Aja.

"Let's look into the data site."

An AR window popped into her field of vision, as the woman recalled data from her wetwired memory.

“So, the site where the data was stolen is located in Bellevue. Since it's an offline storage, the only way to get the data is to physically get in the place. I'll ring up
Prestige Technologies through my head office and see if I can get us access to their security tapes... or anything concerning the theft.�

In VR
Curious about the response, Sora changes tact slightly.

"We understood that Finn was in need of extraction. In exhange for a meeting and having a few questions asked, we could arrange for the extraction to happen."

The forms that you are in conference with turn their bodies back to face you, as if ending their private conversation. Again the faces, stay completely stationary as the rest of their body twists beneath them.

"Your information is outdated. We will share some information with you, for mutual acquaintances and propriety. Otherwise I would stay away from forgotten faces."

Ludmilla
Your contacts within Watanabe's liaison office agree to contact Prestige Technologies and find out what they are willing to share. If necessary, they will go through Takara and have security representatives there make similar requests of Prestige.

A short while later, you receive several files. Video footage from several internal and external cameras with annotations of when the incident happened. Scanning through the pertinent time period you quickly realize that the security cameras were hacked. The team that rolled in looped footage and spliced from previous days to give themselves a solid two hour window to do the task.

Each security guard also carried sensors woven into their body armor, which shows evidence of a team of six indiiduals in a firefight. Each of the attackers is wearing a stealthsuit material which allows them to mostly blend in with their surroundings except when moving quickly. five of the team appear to be human or elves, with the sixth being either a large human or a slight ork.

The team moves with a fluid practiced grace of having worked with each other for years and move with a keen grasp of tactics. One is obviously awakened as a tangible ripple extends forward from her outstretched arm and the guns that the security force is carrying all bend and crumple. Seconds after that, the camera feed shows only linoleum.