[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 5:50 pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Marcel's]
Riot: PAN = passive | Fake SiN = Jim Smith

<<Riot@Team - You guys need a bite to eat? Might be a long night. We can grab something fast, talk game plan while we eat.>>

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 5:50 pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Marcel's]

"Luck won't hold." Wolf replied, sounding vaguely disgusted. "You say he boss though." From his tone it was obvious that he was wondering if Kreskin still felt that way.

"They spot us doing recon on their safehouse, we blow the meet. We can get drone in position, but don't use it til after meet, if we have to use it at all.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 5:50 pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Marcel's]
Riot: PAN = passive | Fake SiN = Jim Smith


<<Riot@Team - Wolf's right. We can't tip our hand yet. Let's grab some Stuffer Shack, and I'll tell you my plan.>>

Meanwhile, Riot runs a quick search to see how long the drive would take, from the safehouse to the meeting place.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 5:50 pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Marcel's]
Kim: PAN = active | Fake SiN = Angel Snow

"Yeah, haha, very funny. Now that we’ve wasted enough time on this stupid idea, can you tell me why Wolf wants to meet with some black hats?"

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 5:50pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Marcel's]
Kreskin | PAN = passive | Fake SIN = Cody Demasi

"Sounds like we should stop someplace and make sure we're all on the same page. Before the drek hits the fan, we should make sure we all agree on the plan. We have a pretty good lead on the runner team we think was responsible, and we also have a pretty good lead on a safehouse that team might be using. It also sounds like we have a meeting set up in an hour and a half with that team, which could go either way." Kreskin turned to Angel, "... and I can't speak for Wolf, but, personally, I'd like to meet the Cats as a professional courtesy. I don't see why they would help us, or give us any information, but we might be able to confirm that they actually did do this job, and whether or not they're still holding B. They are also probably the only link we have to whoever was actually behind this thing, which is something Falcon wanted us to try to look into. I think we might be able to convince them to tell us that - and incidentally confirm that they really did do the run - if we are willing to deceive them about our objectives...."

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:05 pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Heading to Meeting Spot]
Riot: PAN = passive | Fake SiN = Jim Smith

The van had pulled through the drive-thru lane and everyone had gotten their order. Thank god for auto-pilot and remote control driving. One could enjoy their meal now a days, while driving.

<<Riot@Team - I've formulated a game plan that should help us achieve success in our mission. There are some drawbacks, but it gives us a very high success rate to win the day and rescue Belenkiy and get our other 4k. If you will, please join this AR room I've set up to highlight the key points [its basically a white board that a coach would use during an in game discussion]. You see the DIY Storage here and the Park here. I've estimated that it will take about 20 minutes. My proposed plan will have us ambushing them right at 7:30, when their team is split. It's the old divide and conquor strategy. They're already dividing, so we pop in on them with their pants down, and take Mr. B off their hands. Now, to make sure we know where their storage room is, we'll have to have someone inside the DIY at about 6:45. Kreskin's got the skills. He goes in, pretending to look for some storage. He asks to look around, and hopefully sees one of the Black Cats leaving their room. Using that knowledge, he flags the room and we wait. At 7:30, we bust down the door and ask them politely to give us Mr. B. No violence, just outnumber them and they'll see that discretion is the better part of valor. I think this gives us the best shot to get our mission accomplished. We could send one person, but I'd rather not split our forces as they're already doing that. Thoughts, comments?>>

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:05 pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Marcel's]

"No."

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:05 pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Heading to the DIY Storage]
Riot: PAN = passive | Fake SiN = Jim Smith

<<Riot@Team- And what's your master plan Wolfie?? Go to the meeting, let them know we're on to them, and have to face them down at full strength later? Good plan....>>

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:05pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Marcel's]
Kreskin | PAN = passive | Fake SIN = Cody Demasi

"Double no." Kreskin grinned. "For one thing, I was at the bar when Wolf set up this meet. I'm pretty average, I know, but there's a good chance they'd recognize me snooping around - or Wolf for that matter. The two of us need to be at this meet. That's number two. We didn't set up a meeting just to blow it off and screw over the Black Cats. Remember what I said about them just doing their jobs. We gotta show them some respect, or our reps in the Sioux are going to tank." Kreskin smirked, and added, "You're also nuts if you think any Shadowrunners are going go easy when their reps and paychecks are on the line."

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:05 pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Heading to the DIY Storage]

"Don't call me 'Wolfie' again." Wolf sounded pissed. Deadly pissed. "We don't know that's where Belinkiy is, we don't know that they are splitting up and we don't know that they won't just kill him the monent the drek starts flying.

We talk to them."

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:05pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Marcel's]
Kreskin | PAN = passive | Fake SIN = Cody Demasi

"Right," Kreskin agreed. "If they're pros, and their rep is as good as they say, they'll have no reason to mess with us until we tip our hand. I say we avoid that, but there is plenty of common ground between us, and a lot of info we might get without dropping names and hoping for the best."

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:05 pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Heading to the DIY Storage]
Riot: PAN = passive | Fake SiN = Jim Smith

<<Riot@Team - Elaborate on this plan. There may be potential here, but I liked like to have contigency plans in place.>>

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[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:05pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Marcel's]
Kreskin | PAN = passive | Fake SIN = Cody Demasi

Kreskin raised an eyebrow at Wolf as though to ask if he may take a stab at the plan. "Okay, here's what I got so far.... Wolf and I go to the meet, as planned. The people who set this up saw us, not you guys. I'm sure they assume we have a whole team, but as far as they know, only Wolf and I were interested in meeting the Cats - and it'll look suspicious if one of us isn't there. Meanwhile, everyone else gets into position at DYI. Do some recon, maybe go as far as tracking down B's chip, or at least identifying where he is being held on site." Kreskin looks toward Wolf, and held up a hand. "I would normally agree with Wolf that recon might tip our hand, but we need to know exactly where he is being held. Ideally, details about how he is being guarded."

"He's our leverage. If we're barking up the right tree, we know the BC's last or current job, and they don't know about ours. They don't know we're after B, and they don't know we know where he is. We know how to make them fail their mission, and they don't even know what our mission is, yet. It sounds like they're willing to talk with us - probably just to find out what we want - and I suggest we use that to our advantage, to get the additional information that Falcone asked for - without using the meet as a distraction." Kreskin looked at Riot in the back, but didn't get an visual response from his unconscious body.

"In addition to rescuing B, we want to know who hired the Cats. That's information we want that they may have, and they may be willing to help if disclosing that information doesn't appear to compromise their current mission. So, Wolf and I show up, be polite and respectful. We level with them Runner-to-Runner, and see if they'll help us find out who's extorting Falcone. We inform them that we think they might know, because we know they're the team who took B, in the first place - and even if they don't know who's really behind it all, they can probably point us to their J or Fixer, and at least give us a new lead. " He shrugged.

"If they play ball, awesome, we thank them for their time, pay whatever they want for the info - well, if its under the 5K its worth to us - and then we leave... and we don't hit them when their guard is down. If they tell us to frag off, we're no worse off. If the drek hits the fan, though, the ace up our sleeve is that we've already got a team in position to extract B which would cost them their job. We only play this card if the meet goes badly, and we need them to back off. If they push, they had their fair warning, we signal you guys, and you do the deed - but expect them to put up a fight. Otherwise, we walk away from that meet as friends, and make sure they know that if we meet again, its just business. We will meet again, but they won't necessarily know that."

"Main thing is, if you move on B while Wolf and I are at the meet - in addition to that being a dick-move - if one of their men gets the chance to send a message to the Cats meeting us, Wolf and I are toast. They set up the meet, so we can be damned sure they're going to be prepared to take us down. Even if they don't, we lose our only chance to really impress Falcone by letting him know who's out to get him."

"Anyway, its a work in progress, but I like that we don't burn any bridges."

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:05pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Marcel's]

Wolf waited until Kreskin had finished before putting in his own take on the situation. "Recon is too risky. We don'tknow where he is, we know where a safehouse is. If Riot gets a drone in position to recon if the meeting doesn't pay off, that's 20 minutes to pull an extraction before whichever of the Cats we meet can get back there, if they are actually using it.

We also have other leverage. If this goes south, Falcone won't pay us, he'll pay a wetwork team. Ares may not go after the Cat's directly but I'm fragging sure Falcone will hold a grudge."

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:06pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Marcel's]
Kreskin | PAN = passive | Fake SIN = Cody Demasi

Kreskin nodded, "As long as people are in position. The more we know, the better - but like I said, if they catch wind of what we have planned, you and I are dead. My point was, we do have leverage, and they do have information we need. We should do this meet, and do it like professionals."

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:06pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Traveling to the Meet]
Riot: | Pan = Passive | Fake SIN = Jim Smith

Listening to Kreskin and Wolf bounce ideas back and forth off of one another, Riot admits that their idea, while not as flashy or ballsy, isn't half bad. It might need some tweaking, but it was workable.

<<Riot@Team - I think the structure of it is fine. I can tell Wolf likes to know things 100% before committing to them. While I agree, in an ideal world, that always nice, I think we can take it on faith that they're holding Mr. B at the DIY Storage. DIY means Do it Yourself...meaning no one is going to question you. I'd like to deploy a team there, but let me finish hacking this commlink...I need another 30-40 minutes. If I can pin him down at the DIY, I'd like pull out and get in position there ASAP. That means we'd know his location at 6:45ish, meaning we can still make adjustments. But for know, let's go to the meeting location, scout that out for possible ambushes, and just settle in until we get more info. At this point, I think we should throw our comms to "Hidden" mode, as drek might hit the fan, and I'd rather be harder, not easier to find. I think this sounds like a fair compromise between all of our major ideas.>>

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:06pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Traveling to the Meet]

"Good chance he is there, but faith gets people killed. Not good for anyone."

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:06pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Marcel's]
Kreskin | PAN = passive | Fake SIN = Cody Demasi

"Sounds good. I might suggest Wolf and I check out the meet location, alone, though. If they see a whole team roll up, they may wonder where you guys went when the meet goes down. I'd actually rather let them ambush us. It'll make them feel more in control than they are, and they're not going to kill us without a reason, and - so far - we haven't given them one." Kreskin shrugged, "Even if we all go, and manage to spot an ambush, we're not going to take them out, or anything. Might as well not give them the chance to see you guys."

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:06pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Traveling to the Meet]
Riot: | Pan = Hidden | Fake SIN = Jim Smith

<<Riot@Team - Well we have at least 3 votes, so it looks like we'll set up at the meet. Make sure we grab the advantagous terrain (just in case) and I'll see what this commlink can give me. The rest of us will just park in the van nearby. Worse comes to worse, I can track them via their commlinks if the meet goes poorly, track them back to their base of operations.>>

The van continued to take them close to the meeting spot. They were going to be pretty early, but never hurts to be extra cautious when paired up against a more seasoned opponent. About 15 more minutes until the hit the park. Another 15 and he was sure he'd have a way into that god forsaken commlink. VR was so annoying.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:06pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, Traveling to the Meet]
Kim: PAN = passive | Fake SiN = Angel Snow

After it was explained to Kim that Kreskin really wasn’t joking and that she had misheard Wolf, she just could neither believe Riot’s luck nor that the Black Cats were not mentioned earlier. If she’d been wrong about this, what else had she been wrong about? Kim puts on her glasses, so no one can see her eyes change.

“Did you make a big enough fool out of yourself yet?”

“Seriously, same stinking cigarettes?”

“I could have given you a perfectly reasonable scenario.”

“I’m listening.”

“B comes here to relax. Only thing is he’s got a fetish. So he finds the closest place in town where they offer that kind of service. He makes the deal and finds he’s out of smokes. The guy says: “Here take my tobacco, you have to roll them yourself though.” B goes back to the ranch and waits for the women to ‘kidnap’ him and bring him to some dungeon. He has enough money to make his fantasy look real.”

“That’s NOT what happened.”

“It doesn’t matter. Anything that involves B being out of his own kind of cigarettes and getting the distinctive tobacco from this Mafioso would have been a good enough explanation to check it out.
Just face it, you screwed up … again!”

“Oh, SHUT UP!” Kim says rather loudly, taking her glasses off. She looks around the van and says “No not you. I just want to add that I could probably find B within half an hour if he’s there and that I think no kidnapper deserves to live. So do whatever is needed.”

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:22pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, South Platte Park]

The van pulls up a block or two away from the park entrance, far enough away to avoid any surveillance drones if they might be in the area - it's not uncommon in public areas like this - and Wolf and Kreskin step out, along with one of Riot's roto-drones.

The drone pulls ahead and scouts the way, finding no one in the park at this time of the evening. After a trip around the area of the meet, it finds a nearby copse of trees in which to hide, but still be able to observe the entire area of the meet proper.

Kreskin and Wolf tentatively enter the area. There are picnic tables and a kiosk with information in it, but not a soul to be found at this point.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:43pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, In the Matrix, On the Raod]

The results of the probing finally come back, and Riot manages to score a full administrator account - looks like a backdoor that one of the original Ares hackers put in there as a failsafe during testing, and it never got turned off or removed from the system.

His icon dives into the node and begins a thorough inspection of the system. It's a stock 'link (Signal 4, Response 4), running a totally custom OS (System 4, Firewall 6). The representation is of an office, with a desk and whiteboard and the usual accoutrements. Unfortunately, it seems security has noticed the account being accessed. Something in the system twigs to your presence and you see an alert flash through the system, with klaxons and flashing lights. Icons shaped in the likeness of humans begin to pull icons of papers out of drawers and drop them into paper shredders.

Looking around quickly, you see that the system does not appear to be securing the access controls. There, you see a frequency and security code associated with an RFID tag that would allow immediate access to the system written on the whiteboard. You quickly copy that down, but the internal data of the node has been wiped out by the security automatons.

You're alone in the node now, the klaxons gone silent, and it's dark. It looks like an office building where the business went bankrupt and all that's left is stuff that they didn't think was important.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:43pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, DIY Storage and Lodging]

The rest of the team - Kim, Doc, Riot and his remaining drone - leave for the DIY safehouse.

Located at the eastern end of E 112th Ave, DIY Storage and Lodging is one part coffin motel, one part self-storage and five parts rundown. The three story building has an obvious lean to the southern side where pre-fab walls have given way and begun to crumble.

There's an entrance to the building that appears to lead to a standard sort of check-in desk. You can see someone manning the desk through a grimy window, but little detail.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:22pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, South Platte Park]
Kreskin | PAN = passive | Fake SIN = Cody Demasi

Kreskin checks the time in AR, and idly begins flipping through the ARO information the kiosk is offering up, as he finds a comfortable spot on one of the picnic tables. He asks, rhetorically, "We're almost an hour early, right?" Kreskin smacks his hands together, and is suddenly holding a pack of cards. He raises an eyebrow at Wolf and a grin creeps onto his face. "Unless you'd rather sit in uncomfortable silence...."

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:22pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, South Platte Park]

"Only uncomfortable for you." Wolf replied with an answering grin, seemingly totally at home in the park and much more relaxed than he had been in the confines of the van. "Quick game ok I guess."

Kreskin would quickly realise that was Wolf not much of a card player, although he'd clearly played before.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:27pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, South Platte Park]
Kreskin | PAN = hidden | Fake SIN = Cody Demasi

Kreskin smiles and pulls the cards out, quickly shuffling them theatrically, like a dealer at a fancy casino table. He does a couple of tricks, displaying an impressive amount of manual dexterity, before dealing them both out a standard hand of cards. The game doesn't take very long, and it is pretty clear that Kreskin is an experienced player, but Wolf gets a couple of good hands in. Part way through, he remembers Riot suggested they put their comms in hidden mode, and does just that.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:43pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, DIY Storage and Lodging]

With the RFID code in hand, Riot tries to track it down. Hoping that Mr. B was at the DIY, Riot performed a quick scan in hopes to locate him.



"Drek!" Riot roars, emerging from VR. "Fraggin' protection protocols wiped the commlink clean. Least I didn't get dumped. Hopefully this code will help me locate Mr. B."

Stretching out, Riot looks to Angel, but pops his 360 vision on so he can look and talk to her while still observing the outside to see if any of the Black Cats leaves the DIY.



"Angel, I wanted to talk to you. You doin' ok? That outburst a while back was...odd. I wanted to say something right then, but I figured it would be better to talk to you in person than via IM (instant message). Don't worry about Mr. B, we'll get him back and hopefully get to kick some ass while we're at it," Riot said smiling, in his awkward attempt to console her. It was readily apparent, Riot lacked experience in most areas related to sensitivity..

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:43pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, DIY Storage and Lodging]
Kim: PAN = passive | Fake SiN = Angel Snow

“Umm… oh that, yes.” Riot’s sudden advance to her caught Kim totally by surprise.

“I’m fine now, thanks… Let’s just make sure those Black Cats are not innocent.”

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:45pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, DIY Storage and Lodging]

Riot scans the area for the RFID tag. The results are inconclusive, but only because of the potential range of the tag given the size of the building.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:55pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, DIY Storage and Lodging]

A woman in black leathers steps out of a side door of the building at the DIY Storage and mounts up a motorcycle. A quick comparison to your video evidence says that she could well be one of the three Black Cats.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:55pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, DIY Storage and Lodging]

Upon seeing the female jump on the bike, Riot pulls up his image link of the magnified image, comparing to the security footage. Riot begins to prep a message for Wolf and Kreskin with an attachment of the more recent video footage.

"Hey Kim, could you assense her? See if she's awakened? I'd like to give those two a heads up if she is."

<<Riot@Wolf, Kreskin - Looks like only one is coming. See attached.>>

Realizing that if one of the four left, Riot would be able to scan for all nodes, including hidden ones to try and find a fairly tight cluster of 3 or so commlink strength signals to help pinpoint the Black Cats' location.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:55pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, DIY Storage and Lodging]
Kim: PAN = passive | Fake SiN = Angel Snow

"Sure."

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:55pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, DIY Storage and Lodging

Riot compares the woman on the motorcycle to the footage, and with a software assist is all but assured that she is one of the three women from the video - the third to emerge from the room, in fact.

Kim fires up her senses and peers out at the woman. She's mildly cybered, showing up as dark patches on her body throughout, with a larger collection in her arms and head. She's stressed and a little irritated, but generally healthy physically.

And she's accompanied by two spirits of Man, flanking her on either side.

While Kim is getting her sense of the woman, Riot spends some time looking for nodes. There are 23 nodes present in the building proper, and nine of them are ghosting (hidden mode).

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:55pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, DIY Storage and Lodging]
Kim: PAN = passive | Fake SiN = Angel Snow

Kim quickly checks the auras of the two spirits.

“She’s not alone. Two spirits accompany her and I’m not sure how strong they are.”

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:55pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, DIY Storage and Lodging]

It could be the distance, or it might be some other interference, but one of the spirits is all but closed to Kim, and the other shows only that it is focused upon the woman on the motorcycle with a single minded intensity.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:56pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, DIY Storage and Lodging]

<<Riot:Wolf,Kreskin - Check that, Angel tells me that there are two spirits inbound as well...I assume they are astral, because I can see shit.>>

"Thanks Angel. Good to for them to know what they're up against. Also means the remaining three's defenses are down a notch." Struggling to find a way to locate the RFID chip, Riot starts getting annoyed. "Fraggin' matrix...there's so much you can do...and I'm not really all that good." Stumped, he continues thinking of ways he can tracks down the location of the RFID chip.

Saturday April 9th 2072 657pm Denver Sioux Sector South Platte Park"]

<<@Riot, Kreskin [Wolf] Understood. Suggest you pull roto-drone out to surveil DIY and head back here ready for pickup.>>

Message sent, Wolf looked over at Kreskin. "Looks like we got time for another game.."

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 6:56pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, DIY Storage and Lodging]

<<Riot@Wolf, Kreskin - Roger. I think it would be hard to take them inside the building. They're probably on a the 2nd or 3rd floor, meaning they've got the high ground and more defensible positions. Easiest way to get B would be to force them to transport him out of the DIY. If things don't go well, we can bluff them into thinking we'll call Ares or Knights Errant. They'll be more vunerable then.>>

Sending a command to the roto-drone to return to the DIY, Riot waits.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 7:15pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, DIY Storage and Lodging]

Shortly before quarter after seven, the drone returns to the van, where Riot brings it in for use in surveillance.

At 7:15, a motorcycle pulls into the park where Wolf and Kreskin await. The woman on-board climbs off and gives the place the once over, a real thorough look, before approaching.

She speaks to you, in a language you're unfamiliar with. Wolf can place it as being a Sioux lanugage, but that's about all.

“Táku cha yachin he? Nituwe he?”

[Saturday April 9th 2072 | 7:!5pm | Denver Sioux Sector South Platte Park]

Wolf stood up but made no move away from the table or towards his weapons.

"Neither of us speak Lakota. I can manage some Hopi if neccessary but we'd prefer English. We're just here to talk."

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 7:15pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, South Platte Park]
Kreskin | PAN = hidden | Fake SIN = Cody Demasi

Kreskin nodded, and waited for the woman to respond, and he gathered up his cards from the picnic table and returned them to their package. He wasn't sure if this was one of those situations where he would end up needing to excuse himself to go to the bathroom, or not, but decided if he wasn't going to get to speak much, he would rather save it until something important was being said.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 7:15pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, South Platte Park]

"Who are you, and what do you want?"

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 7:15pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, South Platte Park]
Kreskin | PAN = hidden | Fake SIN = Cody Demasi

Having secured his cards in his jacket, Kreskin stands, as well, and looks to see if Wolf was planning to dive right in, or have Kreskin do the talking. It was kind of Kreskin's half-baked plan, but Wolf was the one who set up the meet - so maybe he wanted to make his own good first impression.

[Saturday April 9th, 2072 | 7:15pm | Denver, Sioux Sector, South Platte Park]

"I am Wolf, this is Kreskin. We want to talk about the Ares executive you are holding for ransom."