-Peoria, Arcadia District. Safe House-
A sweep of the relatively generous apartment reveals all of the expected wireless signals on appliances in the kitchen, the water heater shared with the adjacent housing units, and the entertainment center in the entry den. There are some other signals filtering in from outside, but all of them also look like the ordinary signals of a fairly modern city.
Already knowing to look for the ultrasonic sensor, it takes less than a minute to find that running in hidden mode, and the red lamp in the master bedroom that is slaved to the sensor. The node next door takes longer with its ECM, but Nitro manages to pierce its protection and confirm that it is receiving data from somewhere, then transmitting bursts of encoded data out at regular intervals. It also seems to lack any wireless subscriptions. Its system seems to be running slower than the scan's hardware should indicate, but without going into the node, Nitro can't be certain exactly what programs it's running.
-Peoria, Arcadia District. Evening Sun's Club-
The dwarf's human friend sits back in his chair, keeping his ale in hand, and slowly and silently looks over Baron. The dwarf, on the other hand, appears to have drunk himself past the point of reservation and eagerly accepts the proffered beer. "My garage," he moans before taking a generous sip of the beer. "They came in with a health and work hazard inspection. It's trumped up charges! We've only got a couple guys with the flu trying to make ends meet. It's not a bad garage, but they tore the place apart. They won't pay to repair the damage caused to my tools and storage, and they fou--planted evidence of smuggling."
The dwarf takes a swig of beer, and his mood rather suddenly changes from melancholic to enraged. He slams the beer to the table, causing droplets to splash out. "I'll bet it was Henderson's shop! They've never been able to handle the competition, and they're mad that they're not getting as much money with the vory as doing mod--"
"Jose!" the human shouts, managing to get the dwarf's attention. He sighs and takes a sip from his ale, then nods to Baron. "Name's Richard. My friend and boss here has had some undeserved attention from the local law enforcement. We've been having a lot of people sick lately - I'm sure it's just the winter season hitting harder than usual - and we all have bills to pay, so some had to come back in despite not being back up to full health. Henderson is our biggest competitor, and I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to knock us out by snitching about the conditions of some of the back-garage men. Pretty hypocritical if you ask me, since they are dealing with the vory. Anyway, Event Horizon's goons went way beyond what their health search had a right to, and now they're holding us accountable for more, but the only place we have to complain is the corporate court. We all know how well that would go," he says with a tip of his ale before taking a sip.
Richard gently settles his ale down on the table and looks Baron straight in the eyes. "So what exactly are you here for? You don't look as frazzled as most of the folks who come in here."