And I'll have my usual please Jeeves.
Jeeves takes each of your orders but looks aghast at the request for the well-done steak. He tuts audibly in derision at your choice and disappears towards the stairs, shortly returning with everyones drink orders.
Smith looks at each one of you in turn
Each of you has had contact with a new and shadowy group to some degree. Certain folk within the City have noticed the arrival of these 'outsiders' over the past year, remaining at arms length but sinking their tendrils into all facets of the political and economic system here, by using intermediaries such as the old firms {looks at Knives}, disrupting supply chains {looks at Hax} and stealing items of a magical nature {looks at Mantis}
Your food arrives, it's smell is just unreal and it tastes just as good as it looks.
A huge seafood platter is brought out for Smith, with some expensive looking wine to match.
As you tuck in, He continues:
Despite our best efforts, we've not been able to infiltrate this group. We've not had so much as their organisation's name to work with. Every politician, copper or banker they've bought has either been dead or too shit scared to talk by the time we've gotten to them. These boys are good, they are powerful and we don't know what it is they are trying to achieve.
{he looks at Mantis}One of you here has created the best lead we've had on them since their arrival, a direct chase with one of their agents. We were able to ascertain that this particular agent is a powerful mage, capable of manipulating light and sound effortlessly but Mantis here got him rattled, made him make a mistake.{Smith is clearly pleased with this turn of events by his beaming smile}
Gentlemen, enjoy your meals, we'll discuss the order of business when we've finished.
Smith claps twice, and the far end of the VIP room is filled with the holo-projection of the band downstairs, the soft jazz playing through roof mounted speakers.
Smith begins to tuck into his Oysters, slurping them down noisily before cracking into a myriad selection of shellfish.
The food is easily the best you've eaten in years, and each of your plates is completely clean by the time Jeeves returns.
Smith thanks Jeeves for yet another outstanding meal, acknowledged with a polite nod and half-bow by Jeeves.
Can I get you any more drinks or digestifs? Jeeves asks.
Smith orders a glass of dessert wine, sipping from it as he makes his proposal.
I want to hire you three as a team, you've all shown great talent and courage recently. We have reason to believe that the agent Mantis encountered left a datatrail within the gridguide system.
We need that data. Your role is to get into the Gridguide building in central London and retrieve that data for me. We need to move quickly on this before the datatrail gets wiped into the secure backup servers at the end of the month. This gives you three days at most to plan and execute your infiltration.
The Gridguide building is known to be a high-security facility, but I believe you have the skills to pull this job off.
I have an old informant, an ex-policeman who'll be able to give you a rough description of the site, but unfortunately, he believes he has worked off his debt to me already. You may have to "squeeze" some co-operation out of him first {looks at knives}
Smith pushes over a Manila envelope into the centre of the table as Jeeves clears your plates and brings your drinks order.
His name is Liu Xeng, a londoner born and bred, but as slippery as a Thames Eel and as bent a-copper as you'll ever meet. He briefly worked traffic enforcement before he was "retired" on corruption charges {Smith smiles to himself}. He now lives and works as a fixer in Soho. Has ties to the Yakuza outpost here. Watch yourself there, they'll know you mean trouble.
Your re-imbursement will be 10,000NY per head. it will be split 20/80 on agreement to the job, giving you a 2000NY advance to procure any equipment you may need.
I request the data in triplicate on datachips, to be supplied at a dead drop at a location to be disclosed upon completion of the task.
Any questions?
