Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:30 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Mouse; PAN = passive [Skinlink, Trodes]; SIN = Karen Day

Mouse felt uncomfortable and exposed, even though no particular attention was being shown to her as she lurked in the shadows near the dismantled office. Although she felt inwardly restless she maintained a veneer of calm. These people were professional runners, if she wanted to get in with them then she would need to show that she could cut it...at least she hadn't lost her dinner, not that she had any intention of examining the scene from anywhere closer than her current observation point.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:25 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Lucky

"Hey Zion! Just because I've got a new hand doesn't mean I don't need one every now and then! Gimme some help up!"

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:25 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Zion

Zion looks around tearing a piece from his shirt and cleaning his hand pocketing the solvent residue in his jacket hearing lucky through the hole for a hand up and mention of the new cyber ware zion simply smirks "hoi chummer." Leaning down to reach for the ork" careful there is so e acidic residue from a chemical torch or burn some sort. Something we will need to have analysed."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:25 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Lucky

Lucky grabs ahold of Zion's proffered hand, and with a slight run jumps enough to catch the lip of the opening with his other (metallic) hand. The feelings of partnership and teamwork are hard to deal with, and Lucky spends a moment composing himself, swinging in the air. Danny's face flashes before his eyes, the sardonic smile not exactly mocking him...challenging him? Pushing him? With a few blinks the vision vanishes, and Lucky does a pull up into the interior crawlspace next to Zion, his muscles straining, blood and endorphins screaming through his nervous system. He tries to be careful of the residue that's mentioned but can't quite help getting some on his clothing as he slithers into the small space. The recording unit in his eyes is going full blast, trying to take in every single detail to be analyzed later.

Pulling his pistol, he flashes a grin at his (new/old) partner. Danny's face superimposes itself over Zion's in the rush of exertion.

"Let's see where this leads partner!"

Zion takes point looking back over his shoulder, pistol in Lucy's hand zion pulls both one of the knifes from thier sheath his low light vision making it easier to see in the dark he pushes forward.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:36 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

Zion helps Lucky climb up into the attic crawlspace. Then duo then work themselves up to roof. From there, they have a view of the neighborhoods around the Mall. Walking the perimeter they realize that getting off the roof while the mall is open would be problematic, but not impossible, especially with magic support. With parking all around the Mall, exiting the lot would also be problematic without someone seeing something.

As Mouse stands watch, Itchy, the young ganger walks over. He is visibly anxious as he stands around. She catches movement coming from where her team come onto the scene minutes ago. A pair of human are approaching with a stretcher; they are wearing street clothes otherwise. They make their way to the elf in the suit. They quickly, and professionally, roll the ork onto the stretcher and carry him out. The elf in the suit attends all the way out nodding to Mouse as they go. They other elven healer gets the remaining three wounded up and going. As they pass, Itchy leans over to Mouse and asks, "Been a runner long?"

For Aeryn, the bodyguard had seen people come and go all evening but was not clear on who might have been the targets. She talks to most of the other people working on clearing out the area, but was unable to find anyone else who claims to have seen anything more. As she looks around for her next clue, the dwarf who works for Smokey Joe is wheeling out a push cart of boxes; alcohol and the like.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:25 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Lucky

Scanning the exterior of the building, Lucky looked around for any possible ways that the culprits could have gotten away. How did they get UP here in the first place? Too bad they'd just lost their mage, he could use some astral sleuthing up here at this point. Lucky'd never had a particularly weak stomach. That was Danny's provenance. Danny, who had never been able to get used to the smell of a 3-day-old body that had been stuffed in a dumpster...

Lost in his memories, the ex-cop continued to walk the rooftop, looking for clues as to how this attack occurred. Maybe a small aircraft? He wasn't sure if the rooftop afforded a place to land or not.

The attackers could have used the cover of the panicked exodus of normal shoppers to make their getaway in their own vehicle. Lucky didn't think he would find any leads from video surveillance that way. Maybe he could ask the Lifters if they saw anything strange happening. He makes a mental note to do so once they've finished with their scan of the crime scene.

Turning to Zion, he says, "I don't see anything strange. Could've gotten away with magic of some kind. Maybe a small VTOL craft of some kind? If they were carrying something or somebody, it probably would've been too heavy to climb down with normal means. What do you think?"

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:36 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

"Been a runner long?" Mouse looked around at the ganger that addressed her, trying to weigh up his status in all this "Me? About twenty minutes or so I guess. Wrong place right time kind of thing I suppose…I was in there when all hell broke loose…" and she nodded back towards the shattered bar, office, "I suppose I kept my head enough that I got offered a gig. I have to say, it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting…the trids and my dad’s drunken ramblings clouding reality no doubt. I did think there’d be someone in charge though. I’m just gonna wait here keeping an eye on things until the old hands finish their investigation, one look inside was enough to convince me I didn’t want to look much closer!" and without trying to be rude she went back to scanning all the faces coming and going, making sure that the comm on her lapel was recording all the faces, just in case…

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:36 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

Zion looks around thinking to than speaking Toluca as they paced the roof top feeling the chemicals on his hand still burning slightly he responds to lucks question " maybe we can get some answers once we get this analyzed. Also if a VTOL or aircraft were hovering over the mall I'm sure there would be plenty of noise those vtols aren't exactly quiet, nor are they very stealthy one hovering above us would still kick up plenty of dust and the engines would make a hell of a lot of noise" looking at the edges he looks for signs of for prints or marks from drop lines for fast ropes dropping n the roof tops. Frag what the hell was this all about zion kept thinking to himself.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:36 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Lucky

"True. This looks like the work of some serious players. Successfully attacking the Mall, the Mall office...it took some major planning and resources. Maybe the first question to answer is what they were after. That could lead us to answers to the other questions, namely who and why..."

Lucky looks around some more, trying to find any other clues that might be there.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:40 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Zion

Zion made a last walk of the toof looking for any markings of zip lines or ex filtration markings. " who or what indeed if anything at all. Maybe they are still inside." zion didn't like the idea of that,

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:36 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

"Sorry, didn't mean to be rude, just a bit unsettled by all this...I'm Mouse, and you are...? More to the point, what do you think happened here tonight?!"

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:40 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

Walking around the very large roof of the mall, Val is sure the structure would not support a helicopter landing there, though the area is large enough several could hover over it at the same time. Too bad he didn't have any more direct experience with aircraft than the few times he'd ridden in one.

As Lucky mentally scours his brain, he flashes back to the conversation Itchy and Zion had when they reached the Office entrance...

Itchy replies to Zion, "No more than normal that I am aware of. Big-Jake said the winds kicked up outside right when this all went down though."

Mouse has good video of the people cleaning up, regrettably those as surely dead ends. The ganger smiles as she takes an interest in conversation, "Itchy. I'm Itchy. My gang-" he gestures to the white plastic band on his arms, "-the Lifters, we take care of top side. Parking lot, roads incoming. You know-", he stands a little straighter. "We're security outside." As she asks him for his opinion, his ego inflates even a little higher. Not wanting to disappoint, he looks around at the scene for a moment before responding, "I think a team of prime runners came in here loaded for bear and invisible. I think they shot up the place... then they... they... they extracted someone... You know... like some Mr Johnson who had been brainwashed to work for the competition. And they wanted to send a message: Don't brainwash our Johnsons." He smiles, obviously proud of his deductions. The dwarf, taking the last load of alcohol, stops to listen to the story and is obviously amused by it.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:40 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Lucky

"We're definitely going to need a mage on this. I'm sure now that the team that did this had one. At the very least we're going to need some counterspelling and some kind of astral lookout."

<<@Team[Lucky]:We're going to need magic support on this one. Anyone have contacts they can ping, get us set up with some help? Otherwise I'll see if Joe can set us up.>>

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:40 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Zion

Zion looks around, if mojo was used the two down stairs are going to have thier hands full. Zion started to head back down to the others to start looking into what ever else might be down there. "Still what were they after?" Zion says as he makes his way to the hole more to himself than anyone at all.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:37 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Aeryn; PAN = passive [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore

Seeing the dwarf, Aeryn heads up to him and gestures a greeting.

"Hey there! Got a moment? We're trying to figure out what the hell happened, and I am searching for any clues about who has been in the room, when the attack started. Have you by chance seen who went inside?"

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:41 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

Zion and Lucky make their way down the hole into the meeting room avoiding the corrosive material on the edging.

In the hallway, the dwarf stops at Aeryn's inquiry, still near Itchy and Mouse. He looks her over, the amusement from Itchy's conjecture over. "Normally, the anonymity of those in the meeting rooms are sacred." He pauses a moment before continuing. "This situation is obviously different. That said... I trust you will use the information discretely."

After acknowledgements from the team, he continues again. "The Johnson was Mark Simpson. He is assistant vice council for the Saeder-Krupp UCAS Division, Seattle Branch, offices. The team is a local team who call themselves Shadow Team Six; they are led by a mage with a street name of Wilt. We are unclear of the disposition of any of them at the moment."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:41 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Aeryn; PAN = passive [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore

"Okay, so, Mr Simpson met with this runner team, and none of them have come out of the room. Is that right? And they are not dead either? So, they either have all been kidnapped, which seems rather unlikely, or the runner team has kidnapped Mr Johnson, and the rest of the attack was just a diversion. How much intel do we have on that team?"

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:41 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Lucky

Hearing the dwarf's words, Lucky grimaces slightly behind his beard. They were definitely going to need a mage on this job. They'd have to be really lucky to survive an encounter with this team without their own magical support.

"That's one hell of a diversion. Seems there would have been easier ways to kidnap one guy than to attack the Mall Office. Either this Johnson was a major, major player, or we're looking at something else."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:41 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Aeryn; PAN = passive [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore

"Assistant vice council for one of the biggest AAA cons sounds pretty major to me."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:41 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Lucky

Aeryn's words give Lucky pause.

"Yeah, I guess that could be. But someone that heavy, they didn't have any bodyguards? Even if the guards weren't allowed in to the meet itself, they should've been nearby. Did the Johnson arrive by himself or did he have escorts?"

He turns to the dwarf with his question.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:41 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

The dwarf raises a hand, gesturing to stop. "No escorts when he entered the Office." He again pauses a moment. "We know who went in; who came out and how they came out is another question... given the chaos of the situation, we lack credible details to that."

<<@Team [Papa] Hey team, Papa here. Remember me? Anyway... I'm outside... and there's a helicopter coming in. Low to the deck. Openly broadcasting Saeder-Krupp identification. Door gunner in assault armor...>>

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:41 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Lucky

Lucky turns to his group with a wry smile.

"Looks like we might have company soon. Hope everybody is wearing their Sunday best. Mouse, you said you're good at not being seen. Can you keep an eye on these corp guys when they show up here, make sure they don't try any funny business?" To the dwarf, he says "What kind of vid feed access can you give us? Anything that might include vid of the runners or the Johnson."

<<@Team[Lucky]: Papa, can you start running diagnostics on all available vid feeds from the Office? Anything that Joe will give you access to. Try to see if you can figure out the relationship between the Johnson and the runner team. Did they seem to know each other? Were they hostile? That kind of thing. Also, there were a couple of joy girls who went in and an ork who left right before the attack. Can you get an ID on them?>>

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:41 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Aeryn; PAN = passive [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore

<< [Aeryn] Oh, that kinda confirms my suspicions, I guess. Probably the rescue team coming in. Maybe we should contact them? They will want to know, that their guy probably got extracted. Hey, who knows, maybe they will offer a "finder's fee", if we can figure out where they can pick him back up? >>

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:41 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Zion

Zion pulls his slivers from thier holsters glancing at Aeryn and then back to the ganger who escorted them " get a hold of your boss and ask him if he is cool with SK. We will stall if he wants but they will have superior weapons and armor so it will be difficult, we couldnt repell them unless the mall can give us full acess to stock to help contain these guys." looking back to Aeryn "more than likely this looks like a defection or double cross that maybe the johnson was working on. maybe the running team he was working with got a better offer for him and they took it, not un heard of.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:41 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Aeryn; PAN = passive [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore

Aeryn shrugs her shoulders.

"Extractions work both ways, I've heard. With, or without content."

She then looks to her light pistol and back to Zion.

"No way, man. We should try to avoid any firefight with these guys. We are not their enemies, and we should make sure they realize this, too."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:41 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Lucky

"Let's try to keep this civil. They might come in swinging their drek around, acting drek hot. Just remember they're on hostile turf and they know it, so they might be jumpy.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:41 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Mouse

"Looks like we might have company soon. Hope everybody is wearing their Sunday best. Mouse, you said you're good at not being seen. Can you keep an eye on these corp guys when they show up here, make sure they don't try any funny business?" To the dwarf, he says "What kind of vid feed access can you give us? Anything that might include vid of the runners or the Johnson."

"Erm, sure, will do." Mouse tried to inject some confidence into her voice, this was what she was good at!

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:41 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Zion

Zion non the less was not going get handled by corp drek. Keeping one pistol out he waited to see what the arrival of a corp sec team in the mall would be like.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:44 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

The team worked their way down to the ground floor and outside where the landing helo was landing without ceremony. As it neared the ground, a quartet in heavy security armor jumped out and took cardinal positions, kneeling & visually scanning for threats. After the craft finished its landing, a man and a woman in sleek, tactical corporate security uniforms casually exit, small submachine guns in hand. Finally, a single, slender woman in a pinstripe pantsuit exits behind them.

Papa makes his way over behind the team. He is dressed in an armored riding jumpsuit; the design resembles a racing suit, but the colors are subdued. A chest pack is strapped on, its contents obscured, but Zion & Aeryn know from experience his SMG is contained within.

As the few remaining patrons of the Mall make their way away expeditiously away from the helicopter, the team is the only ones headed towards. The corporate trio turn and walk towards the team, confident but unhurried. The pair widen their flank allowing the woman to step forward and afforded plenty of personal space on her flanks. She looks over the team: Zion, Mouse, Lucky, Aeryn & Papa. Without addressing anyone one in particular, "Simpson."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:44 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Aeryn; PAN = passive [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore

Aeryn nods to the woman.

"Yeah, that's him. We learned this just a few minutes ago, while we were trying to figure out what the hell happened here. He's gone. I cannot tell you, whether he has been taken by force, or it was his doing, but I can tell you that he must have left with the team he met here. You probably know more about that meeting, than I do. That is all we know about it. We believe, that the attack here was just a distraction and a cover-up for the extraction of Mr. Simpson."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:44 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

The woman looks to Aeryn, her brow wrinkling. "And what is your capacity here?"

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:44 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Zion

Zion watches as the sec team makes thier entrance impressed by the number they brought, Simpson must have had a significant position to warrant such a reaction. Val was no negotiator but someone needed to answer, stepping a few steps closer to the suit " I take it that was the name that started all of this, he was taken, a lot of drek flew before they disappeared. A lot of people want answers and a face to pummel."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:44 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Aeryn; PAN = passive [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore

Well... six words... that's an improvement.

"My capacity, well... our capacity is, that we are in charge of figuring out who caused this mess here. You got anything to help us out on this one?"

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:44 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

Mouse felt uncomfortably exposed whilst all these negotiations were going on...with the other denizens making themselves scare, rightly so, there were no crowds to disappear into. She settled for remaining as unobtrusive as possible, crouching against a pocked wall, and watching everything...!

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:44 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

Zion looked at the woman curiously a man of Simpson position would surely have a doc wagon contract if not a GPS install in his body he alighted silently to himself thinking no matter who you are there is always a way to steal what you treasure most.

" our capacity" zion said outstretched his right arm to include the entire group " is to find the drek who thought they could shoot up the mall and disrupt business and get away with it. Like my comrade said any assistance from your labs and any information on mr. Simpson and who he was meeting here would be thankful, if we find him alive and well.....well you know we will return him and if it was a corp transfer without permission than you can deal with him how ever you want all we ask is that if you want to find him as badly as we want to find the team responsible for taking him than why don't we pool our resources and find them and deal with them appropriately zion knew the corp team wouldn't want to upset the mall and gangers surrounding it to cause a blood bath over one man, if it meant that he and his did the bulk of the heavy lifting than so be it, they would let the corp team do the stealthy espionage while zion and his crew did the legwork. Either way he knew the sec team was not about to just up and leave because they were there to find their property.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:45 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

She reflects Aeryn's words, then looks to Zion. When he is completed, she muses: "Business.", followed by a smirk, something struck her as humorous.

As she speaks, Papa insures the team members are all joined to a teamnet. In AR, the SK team are all tagged in blue-neutral. Several additional yellow-caution tags begin appearing in the darkness: people who are hiding in line of sight to the landing area.
<<@Team [Papa] Drones are mapping the area. Dragon-fly has neutralized two unknown fly-spies as well.>>

Her composure steels over and she pauses to look the team over. He gaze goes from Zion's pistol back to Aeryn, "You are the negotiator." The words end as a statement, rather than a question. She looks into Aeryn's eyes, her own being the deepest wells of blue hundreds of feet deep. A subtle smile crosses her lips and her features soften, even her tone changes to pleasant melody as she next speaks. "We would like to engage your services, in a complementary fashion. We would like Mr Simpson, his wife and his daughter. If you seek violent retribution on his extraction team-" she looks to Zion, "-then they are not a consideration for us."

After the mention of co operative work and complimentary service of handing over a snatched johnson and his family was a awkward requedt, non the less being the fly boys the last year zion gad seen families go through worse things than a corp security team. <@team[zion]" well i guess if we are to do complimentary finding we will require complimentary expense fee of say atleast 3k per family member, that cupled with old man rivers offer here at the mall, i think that will be a nice haul, frag try to get more if you can. Papa double check our com channel just in case please if there are fly spies are around than there are eyes on us, either the sec teams or the team that took mr, simpson who knows. If you can track their signal back to its operator.">

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:41 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Lucky

Aeryn's negotiating is not lost on Lucky - he's got just enough experience, just enough awareness, to know that he should keep his mouth shut in a situation like this. As the days pass he had been gaining confidence in himself, winning back that small measure of self worth that had been lost...lost like Dann

Snapping back to the present, he hears the words spoken by the corp suit.

"Are Simpson and his family willing or unwilling? Maybe this conversation would be better in a more secure environment. There are too many eyes and ears out here."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:45 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

She turns to Lucky, taking a moment to stare into his eyes and measure his worth... and allow Lucky to get lost in the deep wells of her soul. "At this juncture, those details have not yet been brought to light. In any event, they are of no consequence to us."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:45 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Aeryn; PAN = passive [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore

Aeryn nods towards the woman.

"So, you want to hire us to find your man and his family. Alive and well, I suppose."

She looks around at the whole mess that has been caused and then back to the woman.

"Well, lady, this is going to cost you..."

After a dramatic pause, Aeryn continues.

"We can move to the room, from where they left. I'm afraid, it is in a bit of an untidy state at the moment."


Once relocated, the elf picks the conversation back up where she had left it hanging.

"Alright. You want your assistant vice council and his family, willing or unwilling, handed back to you safe and sound. There is no question about this being a tricky and dangerous operation, we just need to look around here. As I said, this is going to cost you. The price for the safe return of Mr. Simpson is one hundred thousand Nuyen. For his wife and daughter, another fifty thousand Nuyen, each. Twenty percent up front to cover our expenses. The rest once we can give you proof that we have him and are able to deliver. When the whole sum is in our possession, you will get your people handed over. We are no blackmailers, you can trust in our word, but we will need this extra layer of safety here. Besides, it would be a pretty stupid move to mess with you, so no need to worry for you about that point."

"Oh, and any helpful information you can give us will be greatly appreciated."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:45 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

Mouse stayed out of the conversation, content to watch from the sidelines and try and follow the welther of information that was streaming across her AR interface. She didn't want it to distract her if anything serious happened so it was best to become aclimatised as quickly as possible. This must be something like the tactical networks that the trids made such a big deal about...she wasn't yet sure whether she wanted to trust her knowledge of her surroundings to a computer program but she could clearly see the benefits too...

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:45 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Lucky

Lucky pulls his gaze away and inspects the tops of his boots. Whether it's his natural avoidance of strong eye contact or his knowledge of the supernatural, his instincts keep him from looking directly at the woman's magnetic stare. He follows the group inside, keeping an eye on the bodyguards as Aeryn engages in negotations with the woman. He bobs his head to Zion and Mouse every so often as they walk, a small smile hidden behind his beard.

<<@Team[Lucky]: Papa, see if you can monitor any comms from our new friends. If anything seems dangerous, block it and let us know!>>

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:47 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

The woman listens as Aeryn provides commentary. At the suggestion to move to the scene of the extraction, she declines, standing firm. "That is not required."

She listens as Aeryn plays her hand, without comment or emotion. "Two hundred thousand nuyen? That is a humorous figure." It is now the corporate negotiator's turn to pause for dramatic effect. "For that amount I can have a considerably more experienced... and proven team engaged." She smiles her million nuyen smile, "But you are here, on the ground and engaged. I am willing to offer a much more reasonable sum of half your offer."

Zion shifted his weight holstering his pistol<@team[zion]"If she could have a crack team engaged here she would have sent them instead of herself. Things being what they are a little more would be suitable.none the less we are wasting time standing here we are still on the clock for the mall.> zion sends out a message to the flyboys to keep a eye out for this guy and his family/ kidnappers. Just a picture and brief desciption who might have them if they find anything they are to contact zion immediatly and observe and if they see hear or get any word it could really help them out.

Looking at the Lucky and papa " we need this analyzed what ever it is it had a home we need to find out where it was made and start our trail from the seller."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:47 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Aeryn; PAN = passive [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore

Aeryn nods.

"Yes ..."

"... you are correct. You could hire a more experienced team for that amount."

"However, you do not have that option, and we both know that. We got the connections here, and that's what is much more valuable at this point. And ... most importantly ... time is of the essence. Do you really want to tell your superiors, that you couldn't do your job because you wanted to haggle for a fraction of your budget? Or take your time to do some Shadowrunner casting?"

"Besides ... we could figure out who your Johnson is by the time you made it here. That, at least, should tell you, that we're not just some street rabble."

"What's the saying? Time is money."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:48 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

Her smile softens for a moment, "Slight for slight, though I mentioned Simpson first." Then her poker face returns. "As you note, time is of the essence. My budget for this recovery was actually less than a hundred thousand nuyen, but I am willing to move some discretionary funds to get the entire family. If we are done negotiating, I am willing to transfer 20% up front for expenses in certified cred. Are we done?"

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:48 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Aeryn; PAN = passive [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore

"Yeah, and we knew exactly who he is, right? Anyways... I guess we have to believe you and take the offer."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:48 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex
Lucky

"Yeah, I can see if I can put some people I know on it"

Lucky hoped he still had some friends at the Lone Star forensics division. He'd heard through the grapevine that staff had been reduced to a skeleton crew after Knight Errant had taken over things, but there should still be at least one lab geek around who remembered him and could analyze this stuff. A quick posting to the backdoor message board that they ran at the Star should do it. Surely they still remembered him there.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071@00:49 Mall Office, Crime Mall, 136th Street East & 122nd Avenue East, Puyallup Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

<<@Zion [Papa] I'll reach out to a couple of connections and see about tracking someone down with those skills.>>

The negotiator smiles, pulls out a wireless credstick, pauses a moment, then passes it over. She also hands over a wireless datachip. "Including there-in are bios on all three. In the interest of disclosure, Simpson is involved in some negotiations. I can delay those negotiations a day, two at the most. The exact content of those negotiations are classified, but involve some purchases of land in Seattle. I have a theory that his extraction is linked to that, but the party involved is anyone's guess at this moment."