Gil
The clothes of the man holding the door move is a way that isn't normal, if you had to guess he's wearing last year's cur for teh Actioneer Line. Under teh jacket you make out the tell-tails of a concealed holster and judging byt eh size of teh guy, that's probably a Predator of some kind he's packing. You can also make out the your basic government bodyguard micro-transceiver. The important person int he back is also wearing armored clothing, but not to the extent of the bodyguard. They cross teh street and head over to the noodle stand, they order something to drink and sit there. From time to time the bodyguard looks as though he's listening to someone, but nobody is talking to him.

If Nat has not come back by now, Gil moves very carefully deeper into the shadows and fishes out his cell phone.

"Nat, Gil. Someone's scoping our place, physical. See if you can spot astral or rigger surveillance. One more thing, see if you can get a read on a pair of suits across the street at the noodle store. Think one of them is our client. Gil, out."

If she's back, he'll call the company line and give a heads up to the guys.

All
14:55 Everyone except Gil is back in the office, Gil is watching the pair next door.

The office telecom unit sounds the reminder chime for the upcomming appointment.

When Nat hears about the suits outside.

"Greg, you don't think someone could have been listening to his call, and be expecting him to make a visit do you? Only..." She pauses briefly, reluctant to continue. "A source tells me this thing could be big... very big. I rather suspect it might be in our interests for no one to find out that this meeting took place."

Gil
14:57
You see the pair stand up and walk to the office door. The Bodyguard waits outside, the man in the nicer suit walks inside.
All
At precisely 14:58 a man in a very well tailored and cut suit, probably Armante if not better. The man seems to exude confidence. Greg, this isn't the assistant to the Deputy Mayor, this IS the Deputy Mayor.

He waits in the entrance way.

"I'm going to monitor the security system," Greg says. So doing, he logs onto the matrix. Cranking up his sensor rating and loading all the programs he might need, Greg Vimes begins watching all the building security cameras.

All
14:59 The Deputy Mayor begins looking around.
"Hello? My assistant was supposed to make an appointment for me this afternoon at two."

Tom greets the man politely.

"Please, take a seat." Tom gestures to the one new piece of furniture in the building.

"We are Oracle Investigations" he says, gesturing to the general office area where Jack and Natalya are (I'm presuming Gil and greg are out of sight).

"How can we be of service?"

He looks around the room, not really listening. He sits down, gingerly, as though concerned that the chair might collapse beneath him.
"For once in my life, I'm not in control of a situation. I don't like it one bit. I need you to find my daughter before she manages to disgrace me in spite of herself. I need this kept quiet, absolutely no mention of my daughter in the media am I clear?"
With that said, he seems to visibly relax.
"Now before I give you any more information, what is your daily rate?"
He takes out an obsidian credstick. You can just feel the nuyen oozing out of it.

Jack's standing off to one side when the Deputy Mayor enters, coffee in one hand. He's observing for the moment, silently. Part of him wishes he'd shaved this morning. Then again he's likely going have to have that rough cut look later on in the evening. Street types don't like suits after all. But Jack, Jack can deal with either crowd.

Greg continues watching the cameras while listening to the conversation. He records the entire conversation with the deputy mayor, both audio and visual. Later he might want to look over it to analyze the man's voice stress and body language.

Tom nods to himself.

"For a time and cofidence-critical investigation we charge 4.5k per day. You must understand the difficulties, and costs involved in, of identifying and following leads quickly and subtly. We could negotiate a lower base price, but we would require an expenses account."

"That sounds fair, just make sure it doesn't take too long. She has family obligations to attend to and I won't have her embarrassing me."

With that he slots the stick into your cred reader and presses his thumb in the acceptance box of the contract.

"Her name is Jenifer, she calls herself Jenna. She's a student at the University of Washington. This chip has her LTG and dorm address. It also has the parental consent form to allow you unrestricted access to her information at the school. See that this does not get copied and that it is returned after you have found her and returned her to me. Now do you have any other questions?"

He slides an OMC across the desk to you.

Tom gulps slightly as he sees the accept button being pushed on the credstick reader. He was expecting to be negotiated down at-least a little. Tom composes himself again instantly and smiles reassuringly to the deputy mayor as he looks back from the credstick reader.

"I can assure you that we are experienced professioals. The investigation will be carried-out with upmost haste."

Tom listens to the job basics and collects the OMC from the desk, slotting it into his chipjack for the time being. He displays it at the side of his vision on his image link and checks the contents before continuing.

"Obviously the more that you can tell us now about the nature of the problem, the faster the investigation will be over with. In what way do you believe your daughter is going to embarass you? How did you find-out this was happening?"

"For her 18th birthday she wanted to be off the Paternal strings so to speak. She wanted to go to college like a 'normal person' without government bodyguards standing outside each class, running checks on potential dates and study partners, frisking her roomate everytime she came home, etc. As a doding father I agreed, with one caveat; that she check in with my staff every 3 days, she has missed the last 2 check-ins. Her duties include attending various political functions, the politics of the current administration place great value on family togetherness. She knows that if she doesn't attend, her trust fund goes away. There is an important dinner engagement comming up in two weeks and she will attend. My staff has tried to contact her repeatedly, but there is no answer at her dorm LTG or her personal one. Her cellular phone is in her dorm room according to my security staff. I would have my people handle this, but they are ill equiped for investigation and seeing a plethora of government vehicles and staff on campus would raise suspiscions i can't afford at the moment."

Tom suppreses a wince of sympathy for the girl as the deputy mayor mentions his daughter's "duties". He remembers well the feeling of being on display at company social events. Business is business, however, and besides: She might be in troubble and need someone to rescue her. She might be grateful...

Tom snaps himself back to reality with a comment about the data on the chip. He nods and continues:

"Is there anything else you think you can tell us that won't be on her school records? Something her father would know like her favourite foods or her ambitions?"

"Let me see, my assistant tells me her favorite food is Bliss and her ambitions seem to include partying her entire trust fund into insolvency. Aside from that I don't really know much nor care too."

As soon as the Deputy Mayor enters the building, Nat shifts her perception to the astral ready to keep an astral eye on him and his demeanor during the interview.

As the interview progresses.

"So this is a missing person investigation then? You imply that your assistant has a deal of information on the matter - would it be possible to arrange an interview with him?"

"Jonus will be your contact on this matter, so if you feel the need to flesh out the information he prepared on the memory chip please do so. His LTG is in the information. More than likely she has decided to test the length of her leash. I expect that Jennifer will surface in a week, but I don't wish to play her game by her rules right now. "

"Very well. Unless any of my other colligues here more questions for you, I believe this meeting is at an end and we can commence the search for your daughter."

Tom leans back to allow the others assembled to ask questions if they need to.

Jack had been in sponge mode, observing details. He didn't like the man one bit, found him the kind of slimeball who talked to the public about making the streets safer while he was looking to get into office, then cut police budgets the day he was voted in. He was scum, well educated, well dressed scum, but scum nonetheless. Still, years of having to cater to scum like this because they pulled his financial strings had taught Jack to hide his dislike well, while he didn't seem overly friendly, he didn't seem angry either.

`You say Jenifer is a party-goer. Do your men have a list of clubs she frequents, maybe friends she regularily goes with?`

If this was a clear cut case of her having run off, then tracking the friends would put an end to it. Of course he'd still drag it out a few days. Job like this could do good in buying him a new car.

Turning to face Jack.
"That information is in the file. To tell you the truth, I never bothered myself with the inconsequentials of her coming and going. So long as she was on time for the fittings of her gowns, fit into the sizes that fashion dictated for a young woman of her standing, made it on time to the various functions and remained sober long enough to leave, she could be snorting novacoke and rutting with trolls for all that I cared."

It's good to see family values only apply in the public eye...

Jack simply nods, not voicing his internal monologue. Part of him wants to clock the bastard, but he doubts it would be good for business.

`Has anyone made any threats lately against you or your family? I'm sure it may be routine for you, but any such incident may in fact have relevence.`

"Has she done anything like this before? If so, how long was she gone then - and where and when did she turn up?"

"Yes, many threats are made on a continuing basis. The last crackpot said she would blow up my office with a nuclear device she took from Ares. They found her and arrested her, she was clutching onto a discarded espresso machine. From the report I saw, she was beated severly while resisting arrest, pity she didn't survive her injuries while convalescing in the hospital. Yes, Jennifer does this sort of thing from time to time, usually gone for 2 weeks, shows up a week before an event. Do you have any idea how expensive it is to have someone put through a magical rehab center in 2 days?"

Tom has brought the chip display to full-screen and is at-present skimming through the information on it, trying to commit as much as he can to memory and looking for any possible gaps.

Nat tries desperately to sound sympathetic.

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I wouldn't, but I can imagine it would be quite costly..."

Nat quickly looks to change the subject.


"So how long has she been this time? And what sort of funds does she have? I'm sorry to have to ask this, but my initial thoughts are that someone with a lot of money and more than a couple of days could now be virtually anywhere in the world. Are you aware of any aquaintances she might have who could assist with transportation?"

"My people tell me she hasn't left town through any means she might willingly take. Her last check in was eight days ago, so any amount of time up until that point since all check-ins are made physically as in she must present herself at my asisstants door no later than 9 in the morning every three days. She is allowed expenditures up to fifteen thousand nuyen per week and manages to spend all of it each week, mostly on certified credsticks. There is no telling how much she may have saved up. Her roomate might know something, but she doen't answer her phone either it seems."

Noteing the pause in the conversation, Tom wraps things up.

"Thankyou for your time, we will be sure to contact Jonus soon to arrange an interview. Jonus will also be kept up-to-date with any developments, I assume he will relay relevant information to yourself."

Tom pauses again, giving the conversation another last chance, before rising to his feet and showing the depuy mayor to the door.

As Tom leads their new employer to the door, Greg wanders off to do a little prep for the investigation. He needs a throwaway e-mail account to receive packets from his dataworm program. Going onto the Seattle RTG, he comes before the SAN of the UCAS Online e-mail host. Greg's octopus icon goes into masking and sensor mode, turning almost completely transparent as it's eyes double in size. Swimming nonchalantly up to the system access node, the octopus waves an ID badge at the SAN which represents his deception utility. Passing through without incident, the octopus slips a manila folder representing his validate utility onto a nearby desk. The silver secretary representing the e-mail application immdeiately dumps the folder into a trash can. Greg pulls out another manila folder and holds his breath, hoping he will do better this time.

Once the Mayor is safely out of earshot, Nat pipes up.

"Tom, wait up... I know this case is probably just some little girl with way more money than braincells - but... she pauses. "I have some inside information on a spate of kids disapearing; the cops investigating were put on a leave of absence, and information has been kept very quiet by those up top.

I know he said she could have saved any amount by now, but given her evident penchant for the high life I somehow doubt she's the frugal type and would certainly have been back when she was out of cred.

I reckon he knows more than he lets on, and is definately a lot more concerned than he makes out - let's face it, he didn't get into his position by being open and honest. And let's face it, I honestly don't think they've only tried the phone as a means of contacting her flatmate."

After the Deputy Mayor and his flunky leaves, Gil quietly glides back into the office and reviews the file on his computer.

"Some preliminary observations: Physical security on him is quite good, professional but not necessarily expert. Furthermore, she is his kid. Even if he doesn't see her as his child, he see her as a precious asset, so I do not see him letting her out of his sight, therefore I assume protection is as good on his child as on him. Remember, she resurfaced a few days before other events too and was "gone" for longer periods than a week, why would he call us now unless his guys really lost her trail? Deduction: With his guys as pro as they are, I think she was snatched. And from pretty well trained pros too."

"Guys, we might want to talk to her sec/surveillance detail, check with Jonus. One more thing? If she really did have a security detail? Let's make them our allies. We are being well paid, I don't mind letting the security detail getting the credit for rescueing her."

Greg Vimes leaves the UCAS Online host, erasing records of his intrusions as he leaves. His octopus icon fades into nothingess, presumably with no one the wiser. He jacks out just in time to hear Gil give his two cents on the situation. Greg has his own suggestion as well.

"Yes, that sounds like a sensible plan. I think we should split up at first. Half the team can go talk to Jonus and the girl's security detail, and the other half can go to her school and interview her known associates, as well as look at her records. I want to be on the team going to the school, so that I can infect all her school records with my dataworm program. I've just set up an expendable e-mail account to receive data packets from the worm program; hopefully I can find something out if she or her kidnappers access her files."

"Sounds reasonable. I'll go with Greg to the school, I expect Jonus and the security detail will be helpful enough without being leant on magically. The school on the other hand might have some issues with letting Greg in the girls locker room though." Nat laughs. "Seriously though if I'm going to have to probe anyones mind it'll be the room mate's. I'll have a look on the astral too, if she was taken by force then there is a slim chance there might still be some trace of tainting of the astral."

`Someone needs to follow up on Nat's missing kids lead too. If there was an investigation keiboshed, I can lean on a few people, see where that trail goes.`

It was right up Jack's alley, right in line with his past. He had the connections and the reputation within the force to get past that red tape.

"Sounds good," Greg responds. "You can go talk to your police contacts. Nat and I will check out the college, and Tom should be the one to talk to her security team, since he's the one who handled the meet with our employer. Gil could go with any of us, or he might have some contacts to meet with on his own. What would you like to do Gil?"

Tom has been quiet, reviewing the data on the chip. He registers greg's suggestion to talk to the security team. Murmuring approval for the plan, he adds:

"I'd like to talk to the people at the college too. People don't like to talk to strangers, but they like to meet new people. I could pose as a visiting student on a short exchange, with luck her friends may be more willing to talk to another student than a PI." he says contemplatively. "As a contingency plan, of course." he adds.

Tom does allow others to view the data on the chip, but reminds him that if the info on it gets out then our paycheck very probably goes byebye allong with our PI lisences and anything else the deputy mayor can make us wave goodbye to, possibly including breathing rights.

The chip lists various aquaintences that showed up more than 5 times on her cellular bill, the list of stores where she shopped and the locations where she bought certified credsticks.
It also has parental authorization to search her records and her dorm, with University escort, since it was not a private room.

"Eh, breathing right's aren't worth that much in Seattle anyway. But I would miss decking," Greg quips. "Okay, so Tom might want to go undercover at U-Dub after he talks to Jonus. Alternatively, if Gil has nothing else to do, he could go undercover at the University immediately. Either way, it looks like we have at least our next day of legwork layed out for us. Too bad about the university escort though; I suppose they are worried about her roomate's privacy."

Nat glances over the data.

"Greg. Phone numbers; Wouldn't your skills be put best looking into them?"

"I think we should concentrate on Jonus and the University first. These are the 2 more immediate leads, we have a definate objective and we are working well within the bounds of the law. I'll go with Nat to the University, I'm young enough to look like a graduate student. But I think I best be going to the University. Jack could talk to the security detail, he's an old time pro, so the sec guys won't look at him as a wannabe. He'll probably need a backup to go over any surveillance data they might have had. Maybe Greg you could go along with Jack? Tom, Nat and me can go to the U. The U's a big place, more bodies to cover more ground."

Gil proceeds to slip on some extra ammo, making sure he has his federal concealed arms permit with him.

Returning from his contemplation, Tom paces over to the discussion and pipes-up:

"Whoever does go in undercover can't first be seen in public searching the dorm whilst escorted by university staff."

"I plan on squeezing what I can out of Jonus before seeing if I can't get the university to allow me to go in as a foreign exchange student."

"Gil: A no-holds-barred search definately has a higher priority than any undercover activities. We almost can't afford for you not to be there, meaning you're probably not going undercover."

"Nat: If you do go undercover, then be sure to obtain a list of awakened pupils at the university and if possible avoid using magic near them to avoid your cover being blown. Your detection spells and assensing might also be valuable for any legitimate interviews we get with other students. Gil is right that we need more about the missing children before we can take that bunch of dead-ends and red tape to be our problem."

"Jack: Good plan, although another pair of eyes on the legitimate university investigations might be best as a first port of call. I very much doubt you'll be wanting to pose as a student any time soon" Tom says with a smile.

"Greg: I agree with nat, we need you to check those phone numbers out. Another possible line of investigation is that she met someone at rehab last time she was in who put her up to this. If Jonus isn't forthcoming with the info then you might need to reverse-engineer some extra info on her magical rehab stay from the info on the chip."

Tom finishes and pauses for a few seconds. "Does that sound good to everyone?"

"If the Uni can keep any prying astral eyes out of the way, I can disguise my apearance while I'm in view of the students for the search, then I can just get back to normal for the undercover op. Either way, I really can't afford to leave any potential evidence on the astral any longer before it fades - if it hasn't already."

"Yes, that sounds good. I can easily check most, if not all of the numbers on Seasource. I may need to do a bit of hacking, but that shouldn't be a problem. I'll go rent a coffin hotel room and do the decking from there. From there I can check these phone numbers and look at the university's online archives. I'll need a copy of the datachip to do all this." So saying, Greg makes a copy of the datachip, and puts it in one of his datajacks for safekeeping. "I'll check Seasource and try to trace these numbers. Then I'll sift through her records at U-Dub and put them under surveillance."

So saying, Greg heads outside in his trench coat and fedora and takes a bus to a coffin hotel a mile away. "Heyya chummer," he says. "I need a room for the night. Don't need to be big, but do you have any with a wizmungous matrix connection? I wanna play some online games while I rest ya know, and these latest games are a real fragger on the hardware, with all the realistic simsense and drek like that."

"Games, right. Turn right from here, down 2 halls, turn left. 15th cubicle on the bottom right. It's available for the moment. It's 30 for the night, Matrix access is .5 per minute. Check out is 9:30 AM, sharp, whether you're in there or not, unless you pay for an extra day ahead of time."

Nat continues to go through the files, and making some notes on her PDA.

• Surveilance tapes - cab plate 03:23 ->.
• Probe Jameson, O'Malley, Forbes
• Check out Johnny Biggs.
• Call Mike.

"Right, I'm going to go down to the Uni now to check out the astral, whos coming with me?"

"Drek, yeah, we'll need a copy of that consent thing too."

While waiting, she straps a concealed holster across her back, and takes her Ares Predator from a locked desk draw and checks it's safe, and loads it with a clip of hollow point ammo. She holsters it under her left arm, then puts her 3/4 length white lined coat on over it.

"Ready?" She enquires, then steps out to drive to the University.

Greg pays 30 nuyen for the room, and lays down on the bed. Logging onto the Matrix, he heads over to SeaSource and looks up all the people mentioned in the datachip Jonus gave them.

Jack takes the time to drink another copy, and peruse a hardcopy version of the paper before he leaves. Before he does, he checks the clip on his Thunderbolt, and re-holsters it.

A dozen rounds left my friend, better not cross anyone tonight...

He slides into his jacket, and heads for the door. Turning to whoever's still milling about, he tips a nod.

`If I'm not back by this time tommorrow, wait longer.`

He heads out into the dying afternoon, beginning the walk back to his car.

Gil says, "I'm good to go. I'll go with Nat to look through the girl's stuff."