Hellcow does some quick calculations in his head. Shoulda bought that math CPU he thinks Came with a free copy of TurboTax too.

"So, in essence, you're charging us a 95% finders fee for the job? Now don't get me wrong, the maps are nice. But I don't know if they're worth a few hundred grand considering we're the ones with our hoops in the fire. So to speak."

The elf glances around to see if any of his teamates disagree.

"My understanding is a contact with this kinda info makes, at best, 50% of the take while the operators, us, carry off the rest. However, I appreciate the fact that you're dealing with an unknown quantity by investing in us. For that, I think a substantial discount is in order. I propose a 25%/75% split, us taking the 25%, in addition to the 5,000 each for expenses."

Hellcow again glances around at his team. I hope i'm doing this right he thinks, as he gives the Johnson a charismatic and supremely confident smile. I'm so nervous I think i'm gonna puke.

Ick...maglocks with only a central release...that sucked, Lynx thought.

When the Johnson mentions the money Lynx is amazed that he would propose such a small cut for them. She is about to voice those opinions when Hellcow does. She nods through his argument and when he is finished adds her own.

"I agree with Hellcow. I mean, let's assume a bare minimum of 100,000 nuyen, since you said there would be the potential for hundreds of thousands of nuyen to be there. 5% of this is only 5,000 nuyen and then we split that six ways leaving each of us with only about 800 nuyen to show for this. Well 5,800 if you count the upfront payment. I know I'm taking the worst case scenario, but you have to when you run the shadows. Since there's no guaruntee how much nuyen will be there I'd rather have a percentage that would work out a little better given the worst case scenario instead of having to hope for a better scenario with a lower percentage. The former is somewhat of a guarantee of more money while the latter is a hope for more money. I think his proposal of a 25/75 split is much better than a 5/95. You see where we're coming from, right?"

It was always a risk to stand up to the Johnson and she and Hellcow had just done it. Let's hope nothing backfired. If it did money wouldn't an issue since they wouldn't have a job.

@All
The Johnson listens patiently to Hellcow and Lynx, not showing any outword signs of anger or iritation. When Hellcow mentions the 50/50 split amoung contacts, the changeling dwarf, silent until this moment, snorts but quickly composes himself.

When Lynx finishes, the Johnson smiles, flashing once again his perfect teeth, "I think that a greater cut can be arranged ... I can't give you the 25% you asked for as that could a much larger cut than expected, depending on the vagaries of the mood of the crowd. How's 15% sound?"

Hellcow jumps up and does the Snoopy dance on the table....in his mind anyway.

(to himself) "Lets see, hmm...estimate a take of 200k. That's about 5k each. More or less."

(to the Johnson) "On top of the 5,000 advance, 15% sounds very reasonable. I'm in."

Hellcow peers at his teammates, wondering if they'll judge this appropriate compensation. I hope they remember this when they find out I can't shoot for shit. Gotta talk to Foxy about getting the latest "Sgt Savages' Instant Submachinegun Course" on chip later.

Doing his best to not drool at the up-front money let alone the share of the take, "I'm in."

Ok, I just had to get past the name. I had to think of something to call him. Hell, anything was better. C'mon brain work it out.

"Slick here speaks for the team, 5k up front, and 15% on the back end." I gave a quick nod to the johnson and the team. This was a good deal, and we didn't want to let it slide on petty squabbling over percentage points.

After my last fiasco though I had to have some insurance. I looked the johnson in the eye, and put on my best face.

"Your hiring professionals here. We will do the job, deliver the goods, and get paid. You know my rep, you contacted me. You will get your money, clear?"

@Trace
The Johnson returns your gaze for a moment before nodding, "I understand perfectly. Gentleman, and my dear Lynx, if there is nothing else for me at this time, then I will allow you to discuss without me in the room. I would ask, however, that you adjourn this space. Is that acceptible?"

I nodded,

"Good with me."

Standing from his seat Slash reaches to shake the Johnson's hand, "I promise that I shall either get you the Nuyen or die in the attempt, and my word is my bond." He turns to the other members of his new team thinking to himself I hope that my honor can be upheld with this group.

Lynx nods at the Johnson and shakes his hand. 15% was much better and she didn't want to push her luck. Besides if they kept arguing he'd fine someone else to do the job and then percentage wouldn't matter.

When the Johnson leaves she turns to the team. "I think I know a little place we can meet to discuss plans. Meet there in half an hour?" she asks, telling them the address.

@All
The address Lynx provides you is for a small restaurant called the Vixen Bar & Grille. It's not too far away, and to make it there in half an hour should be too problematic.

"Sure, sounds like fun."
Ikarus shoves his helmet on his heads and kicks off on his board.
Sure beats the hell out of standing in line to get a slice of soy-loaf coked on a hotplate, then again, almost everything beats that; well, almost everything, still, if the food is honest to ghost cooked and the other patrons don't eye you for what you got that they ain't, it'll do. Hrmm, that casino guy seemed to know way more than he's lettin on, then again, who doesn't in this line of work, at least the boxing should be fun, I wonder how I'm gonna pull this off, I mean without a codeslinger of some kind, they seem in the drek, which means I can't screw this up, not this one, come on man, pull it together, you don't want to end up another head case like Tartarus, hope he found what he was looking for out in the Deep. Man, the Greeks were good, I miss them, but times change, the code changes, and we all gotta move along when our train pulls into the station. Whoops, gotta watcht he street there, the city engineers don't repair pothols that fast in this sprawl, sheesh, what happened over there, who cares. Man, I'm hungry, where is this place agin... Oh yeah, I passed it two blocks and a kick back there, oh well, hope none of the other guys saw that, maybe I'll pass it off as a tail shake or somthing like that. Damn, missed it again, gotta stop doing that, oh well at least I'm here now.

Ikarus kicks his board up and walks inside, looking for the table with the others sitting at it.

When Lynx arrives she walks over to the female elven bartender.
"Hey Neire! Is the room available by any chance? We need a private place to do some planning."

Slash walks out of the room, and stops by the weapons check, "number 34 please" handing the tag to the bouncer. After retreiving his weapon and checking to make sure it's still intact Slash walks out to his Bike, "Hey I'll meet you guys at the Grille

By the time Hellcow stepped out the door he was already working.

"Elendil! Sorry, didn't mean to wake you. Hey, I hear Grace Gym has a big fight going on in a few weeks. Yeah. You working that one? Worked there before? Oh, you know, been thinking about catching the fight."

"Mario, how'r the kids? You still on that no carb thing? Oh, really? Mario I dunno if anyone told you but....yeah, I know.....but pasta is almost all carbs. Right. Anyway, I hear there's something going on at Grace Gym next friday. No, i never been there. You guys know anything about the place? Who runs it?"

"Yo, Jimbo, whats the word? Been thinking about heading over to Grace Gym to catch the fight later. You guys know anything about that? Nah, just trying to work out the odds. Why, is it dangerous?"

Hellcow Slipped the earbud out and switched the subvocal mic off. He pulled off his helmet and looked at the Vixen. 'Slick'? WTF was up with that? What a silly name Striding into the bar he looked around. And what the hell? "Die in the attempt"? For money? I guess if the run goes bad we're gonna have to cap that guy first. Crazy runners. Ah well, it paid the bills.

Seeing Lynx at the bar, the elf walks over.

Corbin keeps quiet during the negotiation. The kid apparently knew what he was doing, so it was just as well.

Half an hour later, he slid out of the night into the bar where the planning session was going to be going on. He'd regained his piece from the Brumby on the ride over, of course, and slid out of his meet clothes, replacing them with a more comfortable camo suit overwhich he kept the long coat.

He gave a look around the bar, his senses flaring to life in more ways than most could possibly imagine, and the whole place was dumped to memory as a topographical textured image within seconds.

On the ride over, he'd had ample opportunity to look over his fellow runners. Hellcow had, quite possibly, the stupidest name he'd ever heard, but he'd done well enough with negotiations to earn him respect. For the rest, he wasn't sure. One of them, at least, seemed to have a skewed set of priorities, which, hopefully, wouldn't affect Corbin but might get the other guy killed.

I strode into the joint that Lynx gave us. Not half bad, not at all. I saddled up to the bar and ordered something flavorful, but not intoxicating. Now wasn't the time to wash away my memories in 180 proof.

I spotted the girl walking into a back room. I figured that was it so off I went. I found a corner seat and straddled it. Now was the time to keep my mouth shut, and eyes open.

Lynx takes a seat at the far end of the table at the head of it, facing the door. She pulls out the folder that the Johnson gave her and uses the time waiting for everyone to come in to study the maps more closely.

Spotting the others from the meet, Ikarus heads to the table and takes a seat.

Slash follows the other members of the group into the Grille. "well lets get down to the stage planning of this run."

Once the group is in a private location, Corbin joins in. "Seems to be, the first step is going to be recon. I'd like to have a better map of the place, that hand drawn drek doesn't exactly fit our needs. If there's a fight coming up between now and the big event, that'd be ideal."

"I can do a little Matrix recon, they have to be promoting these fights somehow. Word of mouth only goes so far. Anybody any good with electronics?"

Corbin nods. "I've got some chips which can handle electronic work, generally."

"I can do a little astral reconnaissance, maybe check the place out if there's a ward, or spirits guarding it."

"I have the makings of a plan then. We'll need a few things though, a dataline tap, two cell phones, one of which needs to be modified to accept a datajack, the other wired to the tap and a pizza, extra cheese."

"I know my way with electronics and computers, too, Ikarus, so if I can help let me know. From what the Johnson said, I'm not entirely sure we'll be able to get a better map doing internal recon. He said the reason his scouts couldn't get any further than what we have got is because of posted security gaurds at locked doors. And since all those doors are connected to one release, if we open one, we open all and that looks way suspicious," Lynx reasons. She pauses and thinks for a moment, then continues, "Maybe it would be better to let Ikarus try to get a better map off the matrix. I'd rather not risk life and limb on recon anyway because if we get caught the recon is moot since we won't be around to do the actual run. So if Ikarus can find a map on the matrix then we don't have to worry about finding a fight date in between now and our run (since there might not even be one) and we don't have to worry as much about physical recon. Although, having astral recon would be great, Trace."

She waited to hear the team's reaction to her thoughts. She hoped no one would take offense at her trying to run things. It was a B&E job and she felt qualified, but Christ was she nervous...she'd never had to take leadership positions before.

Slash nods his head in agreement, "I say that sounds pretty good to me, lets let the matrix runners do their stuff, and it needs to be well more than one pizza, i can eat a whole pizza on my own, likely anyone with some of the higher end enhancements will do the same."

"Ok, matrix runners do your thing and I'll go scrounge up some pizzas. Does anyone want Just-a-beers with that?"

"No Beer for me, thank you. Do you guy's want me to do an astral run on the place? Take a look at what they got?"

"It depends really, if there is a ward, the no. If there isn't then I have pretty much free run of the place."

"Just be careful. Don't take any risks or anything. Better to not know things than for them to know things," Corbin says very matter-o-factly.

Slash looks to Hellcow, "hey I'm not offering to buy, but I'll pay for my part."

Looking back Trace, "A little astral recon is always good, just don't get caught."

"Right, save me a slice. No fish though, soka?"

I leaned my head back and the real world vanished. Replaced by the scintillating light, colors, sounds, and emotions of the astral. Like a water painting on crack. I held on for a few moments, just to make sure my new friends were going to play nice with my body. I didn't see any malcontent in them so I bolted.

Traveling in the astral is a lot like flying in a plane that only has two speeds, really damn fast and really damn slow. I went really damn fast 'till I found the general area I was looking for and then I slowed down. The gym wasn't to hard to locate. The emotions in the area were like fire to my astral eyes.

I wasn't going to go in or anything, nothing quite so risky, just take a look around and get a good feel for the place.

"Hrmm. Can I get a lift to a good coffin hotel? I need access, and teh shelter doesn't exactly lend itself to leavign reality for any length of time, unless you really don't like your personal space."

"Sure. I can drop you there on my way to get pizzas. Two extra large with chesse and one large meat lover's with stuffed crust right?" Lynx verifies as she heads for the door and motion Ikarus to follow. Her car was parked a few blocks down.

Ikarus follows Lynx down the street, gliding along on his board, "So, what do you think?"

"Sounds good. Thanks, Hellcow," Lynx says as she takes the keyes to the apartment from him.

"What do I think about what, Ikarus?"

"This setup. It feels like a setup. I'd talk a walk but I'm sick of the shelter; even if all I get paid is the five large I'm set for a bit. The rest is icing on the data. Which reminds me, can we stop at a Digital Shack?"

Lynx laughs goodnaturedly at his speech. "I don't think it's a set-up, per se. I think someone is just trying to get rich quick. Hell, the person who hired us probably has a huge ass bet on this fight and is looking to cash in on the insurance if the money goes missing. Either way, as long as I'm getting paid I don't care. I mean, this is a B&E runners dream!"

She unlocks the passenger side door for him and then goes around and gets into the driver's seat. "So, where is the nearest Digital Shack?" she asks.

"I think there is one on the way." replies Ikarus as he gets into the car. "If I'm going to be doing a snatch n grab on online money, I need a place to put it, and while not being shackled by a cyberdeck has advantages, not having online storage posses other problems, so I need a pocket computer with a datajack and chip-drive, and a good sized chip for it."

@Trace
Doing a quick spin around outside the gym, the Astral plane is mostly gray and brown, shades of boredom and mundane life. Considering the hour, the third floor gym is probably closed. Use the windows as a way to peak into the building without going inside, you do see some completely mundane janitors sweeping floors and wiping down the equipment in the public gym.

Moving around the building you begin to get a better picture of how it's set up. The building is built into a hill on the north side. This provides access from the top of the hill into the third floor on the north side and from the bottom of the hill on the south side you can get into the first floor. As a result, there are no windows that would allow you to peak into the "unknown rooms" on the first and second floor from the outside unless you go inside the building. From the outside, however, there seems to be no passive or active astral security to block your access.

Lynx follows Ikarus's directions as they head for the Digital Shack. She waits in the car while he gets what he needs. Then she heads to the address Hellcow gave her for his apartment. She stays out of the way so that Ikarus can do his thing, but she keeps alert just in case.

Corbin stretches augmented muscles and relaxes as he waits for pie and recon results. "The big thing is going to be the maglocks. If we can co-opt those, we'll be in business. Guards aren't particularly effective."

No wards, no watchers, no mages. This was a trick, had to be. Nobody with anything worth protecting did with out, if only to prevent what I am about to do. I edged up to the window, real close. Nothing I could so I went through it. Now time to find that hidden room.

Hellcow watched Trace closely. He'd never seen anyone astral travel before.

"Unfortunatlly i'm not experienced in those matters. Don't most buildings have some type if internal security headquarters? Could our decker get in there? Well, anyway, after we get a complete map we can better make a decision how we're going to enter."

Corbin nods. "Depends on how recent this place's security system is. Time was that everywhere was run off a matrix connection and all we'd have to do would be strap a tap into a junction somewhere for him to have complete control of the place. These days, the new stuff is all done with riggers. Lot harder to take over."

@Trace
Popping inside the building onto the second floor (the top level of the gym) the very large room is almost empty except for two janitors mopping the floor of the gymnasium below you. Moving toward the center of the room, for a better vantage point, you can see the "box seating" along the north wall that the Johnson mentioned. Gliding toward that section of the building you begin to see what you had expected outside. There is a large warded area on the first floor of the gym underneath the box seating area on the second floor!

Bingo. I knew they had to have a ward. I guess they could only afford a small one. Gotta remember that next time I feel like watching a fight. Id another quick zoom around looking for anything that might be useful, plus getting a good feel for the ward.

I returned to my body and the smell of fresh Pizza. Reintergrating was always easy, though the shaking tended to freak people out. One minute I was stone cold, the next, bam.

I woke up with a jerk and immediately reached for a slice of pie. Astral travel always made me hungry.

"They got a ward on the inside, but nothing on the outside. I got a good look at the joint to. Pretty crappy."