"Mostly. Though I'm trying to find out what has been going on recently between the Yaks and the Mob. Specifically the Italian take on things. Everything I've heard sounds like they're circling the wagons. I just want to know if I'm supposed to be the cavalry or the indians."

Glancing down at his poc-sec, Jake and sees the icon signalling the incoming call from Moe

"Fixx I have another call coming in. Can you get back to me when you have something?"

Switching lines with the tap of his thumb, Jake sees Moe's features on the screen and the signs of a data connection being formed.

"Heya short stuff, don't make too much noise if you can avoid it. I'll send Loki down to you to see what he can see."

Still on the phone with Moe he walks back inside and feels his stomach lurch as he watches Loki eat.

"Hey, remember to chew first, then swallow--try not to inhale the food. Are you and Katie ready to do some recon? Moe is down at the docks and ready for your astral sweep."

Nameless looks over at Jake, "You got anything for me, or you want me to just sit and chill? I already put the word out, I got maybe one more person I can try, but I don't think it'll get anywhere, so I'm free, pretty much."

Jake - "No problem, but as long as you're working for Vinnie, you're on the right track. I'll try to get a little more information, and talk to you soon."

Nameless - Your phone beeps a moment later, and the message contains the sultry sounds of everyone's favorite hit-person.

"Business has been booming, hun. Yakuza are taking out so many contracts people are flying in from out of town. They're arranging for a simultaneous hit though, so must of us are just doing the legwork and bidding our time."

"Nameless, I don't have anything per se yet. Here's the info that Moe sent out. What have you gotten from your contacts?"

Jake forwards the data packet from his poc-sec to the rest of the team. Looking over at Loki and then to Iblis' limp form, he follows up with Nameless.

"Do you have your car with you? I have a few things to grab at my place, in case we get straight to work tonight and they would be a bit flashy on the back of my bike."

Nameless nods. "Yeah, I got my car. I'm going to pick up some stuff too, just a little extra firepower, just in case. I'll take you." He looks over at Loki. "You too, if you need anything."

Everyone who needs to pick stuf up hops in Nameless's car. While they're driving, he tells them what he knows thus far. "I heard that the Oriental crime families are gearing up for an alliance against the Mafia. Specifially, the Triads and the Yakuza are having a meeting sometime real soon. Looks like the Mafia is facing some lousy odds. And the Yaks are hiring so many hitters, they're flying people in from out of town. But they want one simultaneous hit, so when it goes down, it's going down in a big way." He chuckles. "Hell, if it wasn't for this piece of biz, I might try to get a job with them myself."

They cruise the rest of the way, and everyone grabs what they need. Nameless drives slowly and carefully, so as not to attract attention, and to make sure they aren't being followed. After everyone has what they need, he drives back to the safehouse, doubling back a few times just to be sure no one is taking an unhealthy interest in what they're doing.

"If the syndicates are burying the hatchet to come together on one big hit against the Bigio's we may have a problem. Let's listen to what Vinnie has for us tonight, but if we are are going to stand in between a clash of East and West, it may be time to stay unaffiliated."

Jake tosses a riot shield, painted white with a red cross, into the trunk and gingerly sets a large duffel bag on top of it. He then continues the ride back to the Iblis' place.

Setting down the food, Loki nods and tells Katie the plan. Before doing anything else, he summons a watcher spirit. Lying on the couch, he astrally projects, and together with Katie and the watcher, heads down to the docks.

Panzergeist - Your trip to the docks is uneventful, but when you arrive at the office you've been giving, based on the information you have, you see two hulking spirits sitting in the astral just outside the building, obviously on guard duty.

Back at Iblis' place, Jake looks in on his furry friend. Upon seeing her still jacked in, he sits down across from her and closes his eyes. He feels the tendrils of mana from his focii still pressed against his flesh, their touch a comfort. Focussing his will, Jake pulls the mana from the air surrounding him and the ground beneath him and pushes it into the silver necklace underneath his formfit. He opens his eyes briefly to ensure that he can detect the telltale signs of his enchantment--trails of action coalescing around him. His eyes shut again, he presses his will against the jade brooch that Mama Fortuna had provided him for services rendered--the brooch sparks to life as well and Jake feels an almost tangible slowing of the world.

4 hours passes...
Iblis gives a sigh and unplugs from the deck. She strolls her finger over the keyboard and the portable printer begins spitting out scream sheets from the various news agencies she was able to surf and grab data from. She stands and works out the kinks from her stiff body.

"This is what I could find. It seems they're getting all twitchy with each other. Hope it helps." She calls over her shoulder as she shuffles to her room to gather gear for the meet.

April 5th, 2064 11:00pm

All - You arrive at the Tacoma docks a few minutes before meet time. The outside of the office is fairly common, just another storefront in a string of storefronts, no different from the rest on the outside.

The air is foggy, with the condesation rolling off of the bay, and the docks are empty. Deserted, the space is almost eerily still, only a slight wind rustling the occasional paper wrapper across the parking lot. Those of you with astral perception will note that there is a solid ward around the office, and two fire elementals, looking suspiciously like solid looking humans with no necks in leisure suits standing guard outside.

Vinnie's office is the only storefront still lighted up. Transinternational Shipping The front door is unlocked, and the interior of the office is simply, with only a few plastic chairs and plants out in front of a receptionist station. Behind the receptionist station is a single door.

A few seconds after the group first opens the front door the rear door opens, and a short figure comes strolling out. He's about 5'6", dressed in a rumpled looking suit, unbutton, with collar undone and sleeves rolled up. Slightly balding, he runs a hand through his hair, finishing off a slice of pizza as he waves everyone in. He raises both brows when he sees Iblis, but he grins at Steel in a rather familiar way and waves the group into the backroom.

The backroom is a single room that obviously serves as an office and a conference room. There's a large, round white table set up in one corner, and a desktop with a laptop off in a seperate corner, and a few metal fire filing cabinents to round out the room.

As everyone files in, Vinnie paces back and forth, wringing his hands.

"Alright, look everybody." A faint Italian accent comes through as he speaks.

"I called all ya'll to do some work for me. I'm sure any of you who've bothered knows what's going on, so I won't bother dragging it out in the open. There's a boat coming into harbor in 4 nights, on Pier 96. We need you to make sure that the cargo comes to us. We need it within a week of it coming into town. We can pay 20k a piece. You in?" He looks expectantly at the group.

Nameless typically stands in the rear of the group, off to one side, watching the situation carefully, covering the team's back. Tonight is no different. Unobtrusively, he glances at Jake and Steel, following their lead for now.

Steel takes a seat, draping her arms over the back of the chair and stretching her legs out in front of her. "What sort of resistance we looking at on the boat, Vinnie?"

Diesel Stands next to Jake looking as menacing as he can Diesel is watching the scene keeping a careful eye for anything suspicious. All the whille keeping his hand on the grenade launcher under his jacket waiting for Jake to give to word to make a move.

Iblis gives Vinnie the once over and then lounges against a wall near the door with her hands laced together behind her head. "I like the early American wise guy thing you have going on here. The pizza was a nice touch."

Loki glances around furtively. Get to the point, get to the point! He doesn't like meets. Loki much prefers getting down to business. Using Katie's sense-link power, he takes a quick glance through her eyes to see if the two elementals are in the room with them.

Nameless checks out Vinnie carefully, memorizing his scent, appearance, aura. Working for a syndicate was always risky, and he wasn't taking any chances.

:: Moe, choosing to remain out in the van to keep the overwatch, she listens in through whoever was willing to go in with an open mic. ::

Vinnie arches a brow at Iblis' comment. "Of all people yammering on about appearances, toots, I'd have thought you'd be the last to criticize."

"Anyway, I've got no clue what kind of resistance you're dealing with on the boat. Whatever they decide to pack on, most likely. If you're in, I can pass on a little more info about the storage location. Yay or nay, kiddies, I've got business to attend to."

Iblis winks and smiles at Vinnie's comment. "Love a man with a spine, they always make that snapping sound when you break them." Her tone is light and playful. You getting all this Mee-Moe? She locks eyes with Jake and gives a nod, indicating her throwing in for the run.

Loki knows better than to broadcast this conversation over the airwaves to Moe, regardless of how good his encryption is. Before deciding whether or not to take the job, he assenses Vinnie, looking for any sign of deception.

:: Sitting in the van and she chewing on sour licorice strips as she listens, she shrugs, though no one can see it. ::

"Eh...decen' money fer a snatch an' grab...butcha know you're no' gettin' tha full monty, an' wif his affiliations, I doub' ya will. No 'uge alarm bewlls though. If'n you an' JJ are in, color me pink."

Jake has been silently watching this conversation from behind Medesha's chair. He gently places his hand on her shoulder and squeezes in assent.

Short-stuff can you run a once over to make sure our line is secure, then everyone switch to C

Steel tilts her head slightly in confirmation of Jake's squeeze. "Sounds good to me," she says lazily, "I assume you're leaving methods up to our own discretion?" She grins. "You know subtlety isn't my strong suit."

"Heh, no kidding. You destroy more property then any other chick I know, including my ex. Don't really care what you do with everything else, I just need the cargo intact." He tugs a cigar out of the suit pocket, drawing an old fashioned Zippo from a pants pocket and lighting it. He takes a long drag as he tucks the lighter away, and exhales a cloud of noxious blue smoke towards the ceiling.

"Alright, so, everybody's in. Glad to hear it. Woulda hate to have had to kill ya'll," he jokes, stepping over to the laptop on the desk. He taps a few buttons, and grabs the paper that spits out of the flat printer, tossing it on the table for the group.

"There's all the information we have on the boat, the dock, the pier, and the warehouse. There's a number for a decent driver with a couple of boats in there too, name's Schnell. Just in case you decide to hit the boat. Anything else?"

Loki remains silent as he gleefully contemplates the possibility of fencing the boat itself and making big nuyen off it.

Jake sniffs at the smoke and wrinkles his nose.

"Straight from the Stuffer Shack eh? If you are going to kill us slowly with something that putrid, could you at least buy a decent brand?"

But as far as business concerns, how big is the cargo? Are we dealing with the entire ship's manifest or a couple of crates? Also are there any specific precautions that need to be taken with it, ie refrigerate the organic components, highly fragile et cetera?"

Nameless gives a grim smile as he thinks about how glad he is that Diesel and Steel are on his team. They should enjoy the carte blanche policy. Not really my style, but it's always interesting watching those two go to town. Could be fun, open season on whoever's unlucky enough to own that boat. He glances at Diesel, knowing that the big troll had to be salivating at those three magic words: Collateral Damage Irrelevant. Nameless shakes his head slightly in amusement as he pictures the boat owners waking up to whatever Diesel and his toys have done to their boat. Suckers...

"Eh, cargo's a total of 6 shipping crates. Nothing organic, nothing that needs special treatment besides the standard 'Don't shoot don't break' rules. It's explosives, some c12 and guided rockets."

He plucks the cigar out of the corner of his mouth, furrowing his brows as he looks at it for a second, and sticks it back, giving Jake half a glance, a bit confused. "They taste just fine to me, what're you yakkin' about?"

"Anywho, the only thing we know about security on the boat is that they've got at least one mage boosting travel speeds with spirits. They actually won't leave Vladivastock until Tuesday, they're cruising at ridiculous speeds with that damn magic boost. There will be at least 50 crew members, and however many people they brought along as guards, probably no less then 15-20.

The warehouse is here on the Tacoma docks, Pier 96, like I said. We know they've only got a dozen or so guys running guard duty there. No confirmation on magical support, but the guards are sporting assault rifles and light sec armor. They're not messing around here, guys."

Loki whistles appreciatively at the mention of all those guards. "This will require some great tactics. Those guards are likely to be pretty well-trained and cybered too. We'll need some way to combat their superior numbers. Do you think you could hook us up with some knockout gas?"

Nameless raises an eyebrow at Vinnie's estimates of the guards, and their capabilities. Geez, it's a small private army over there. And we're only getting 20K apiece? Hope we can negotiate that up a bit. Already he's thinking about how to get past them.

"Knockout gas? Yeah, sure, I could get some, but it's gonna cost ya. In fact, I know a box that just fell out of the back of a truck. I could getcha 20 doses or so within a day or two.

I don't know about training, but I know most of them aren't heavily cybered. The worst you're looking at is a couple of SGL's and some eye mods."

"Collateral damage irrevelant eh?" :Diesel says with a big grin: "Is anything in the crates water sensative? Just in case a rocket should accadentally go off in the side of the boat."

Steel smiles at the idea of taking on an army. "I'm sure we can handle it. I like the idea of knockout gas, though." She reflects. "And rockets."

"Anyway, Vinnie, it sounds like a lot of fun, all things considered." She gives him an innocent look. "So we'll take the 20k each now - that's the half up front, right? And we'll get the other 20k each after successful completion."

Nameless can't help but chuckle a little inside, listening to Steel and Diesel. Ok maybe we won't be going around them. Sounds more like right through them. Oh well, it should be interesting either way...And way to go Steel, negotiating for double? I like that. I like that a lot...

Vinnie spends a moment choking on his cigar, and you're not sure after it's over it he was actually choking or just laughing.

"Nice try, toots," he says with a grin, "but I've got a few more braincells then that left. I'll give you each 9500 upfront, and the other 10500 upon delivery. Capice?"

Nameless glares at Vinnie. He may not be that dumb, but he sure ain't that bright either. If he thinks we'll take this for what he's offering, he's got another thing coming...I hope.

Looking over at Steel and Jake, he wills them to turn this clown down. Come on guys, turn this fragger down. I ain't so hard up I gotta start taking raw deals like this one.

Steel glances around the room for a moment before settling her gaze on Vinnie again. "I dunno, Vinnie, that's a lot of danger for a small return. I'm not sure everyone will be on board for that much - and that means a lower chance of success." She smiles. "Can we get half of it in Vinnie credit?"

Iblis leans forward and whispers into Steel's ear. "See if he's willing to set us up with a buyer for the boat if he can't swing any extra nuyem. We could use it to off-set the crap pay on this run." She gives her shoulder a friendly squeeze and as she resumes her former position gives Vinnie a slow wink.

Steel nods and turns back to Vinnie. "And can you set us up with a buyer for the boat? There's a slim chance we won't destroy it utterly."

At hearing we might not destroy the boat utterly, Diesel gives a heavy sign and begins to think of any weapon he has that caint be clasified as a WMD. That means the rocket launcher and HE grendades are out and the assault cannon might not be the best thing to bring either.........I always knew the concussion grenades would come in handy for something and thiers awlays close range. At this last thought Diesel shows a tusky grin.

Vinnie tugs the cigar out of his mouth and peers at it thoughtfully. "Yeah, alright, I can do half in 'credit' for whoever wants it. As for the boat...you'd have to keep it stashed somewhere out of sight for at least a week after the hit, but I could get you a buyer after that. I'm telling you now though, I'll need some info on the condition of the boat before I can give you a good guess on the prices we're talking. And if I set up a buyer, having to back down would injure my reputation. Do you want me to set it up?"

"Vinnie set it up. We'll get back to you as soon as we can with details on how the ship looks. In the meantime, I'll take the upfront section of our payment and we'll get out of your hair. Call it 35K in nuyen and 31.5 converted to credit."

Alright team, people that don't want credit we can get full nuyen for but we are closing down negotiations.

"I presume you will get in touch with us, after you have sorted out how much the gas that 'fell off the truck' will be. Steel will be in touch with you if we need anything else."

With that, Jake picks up the papers from the desk and waits for Vinnie to hand over the credsticks.

Vinnie takes a moment to plug a certified credstick into a reader on the laptop, and makes a few notes in a PocSec. He hands you the credstick, the display reading 35k.

"The gas'll run ya 1200. Gimme two days, and then send somebody around with the cash."

Vinnie waves everybody out of the office as business is concluded, still puffing on the cigar stub clenched between his teeth.

Nameless glides out of the room, a bit uncertain as to what just happened. Did we just get hired to take on a ship full of Yakuza goons for a lousy 20K per? And what is the deal with this Vinnie credit? Is that supposed to make up for the difference? Huh. I wonder what the others think. Oh well. I trust that Jake knows what he's doing. Either way, it should be interesting.

Iblis rises from the wall she was leaning against. "See ya Vinnie, it's been..........................well, you know." With a little jaunty wave heads back out to the parking light and her tricked out Vespa. She pauses before putting her helmet on. She nods towards Jake. "Back at my place then?"

Jake smiles reassuringly at Nameless.

"Don't worry, the run will pay off in the end."

Glancing over at Iblis,

"yeah, let's go over the pre-lims, catch a few winks, and get down to business."

Alright Moe let's roll on out we have a party to crash, and 72 hours to arrange it. Everybody head back to the ranch.

Nameless grins at Jake. "S'ok chummer. I trust the crew's got it under control. I'm a little surprised that we ended up taking the job for that pay, but I figure we'll make it worthwhile." He snickers. "Besides, I guess it gives Diesel incentive not to blow the thing sky high. We may yet make a nice profit out of it if we can take that boat. I'm interested to see your plan."

In response to Jake's knowing smile, Nameless just shakes his head. "You ain't let us down yet, so I'm guessing you won't this time out." He claps Jake on the shoulder as they head to the vehicles. "So let's get it done bossman. I'm looking forward to seeing what you got up your sleeve."

Together they walk towards the vehicles and drive off into the night, to the safehouse that awaits and the job ahead.

Climbing into the van, Jake ruffles Moe's hair.

"Take us home please."

As the city moves past us, the different neighborhoods flash by like cartoon characters, over done and larger than life. Each section trying to scream out its own appeal. Finally winding into a part of town that boasts plants and small cottages. The area has a strong Elven feel and pull up to a small house tucked at the end of a street with a long driveway along the side.

Once all the vehicles are back at the house, Jake nods to each person as they enter. He stops Loki on the way in.

"The wards I put up around here awhile back are just about dead. Can you and Katie put up a fresh batch? When that's through we can get down to business."

Jake then follows Iblis into the house.

"Hey hon, how would you feel about a little more matrix time? I'm curious if you can get access to the Global Positioning system satellite network...if we can find our mark and push her a degree or two off, it will get herout of the main shipping lanes and make our job a half-step easier as we know how to find her and she will not know how to get here. Also can you get Moe to do a quick scan of the vehicles to make sure we're clean? I'm going to catch a quick shower--and no you can't join me, sorry bunny."

Instructions given, Jake heads for a shower and a quick nap.

:: After pulling in to the garage, Moe pulls out a bug scanner and completely checks over first the van, then heads over to the remaining vehicles. Though she had kept a good eye on the vehicles, you never know when someone with talent and rhutheniums might choose to make your job more interesting. ::

:: Once finished, she breaks down the condor drone and double checks it's systems to make sure it will be in top performance for the next time it's required. Afterwards, she spends about 2 hours going over the van, reprograming some of the well used photovalic stored images into new and unseen variations. ::

:: Still in the van, she settles into her seat and yawns a bit before responding to the group. ::

"Give me 3 hours while you put up wards and such. That way I can keep watch when everyone else crashes out."