[MaxKojote]

Joel matched the assenting nods of the rest of the team. There was little they could really do in this position; they were fairly reliant on Tweety's goodwill. Hopefully Tweety would reciprocate his part of the deal if the opportunity arose.

[Ren]

Tweety looked at you thoughtfully then spoke up in a patient tone. ”Look, guys, I can clearly see that you are not fully satisfied with what I offered. Let me explain you something this one time. My offers are just that, offers. If you have different thoughts, if you have a counteroffer, or something you want to discuss about the deal, speak your fragging mind, otherwise I won’t know what your problem is and we can’t rectify it. These deals still have two sides, even if you are not in the best of positions.

“I want to establish a business relation with you which is based on mutual trust. But if you don’t trust me enough to negotiate, how can you trust me when I give you information?” He sighed. ”I know you’re new to this all. But believe me, basic rules of business are the same here in the shadows as on the sunny side.”

[farothel]

"I don't know about the others, but for me it's the vagueness of it," Jade said, "Like you said, we're new at this, but it seems a quite vague deal to me.  I know that you can't know up front when and if and what information you will find, but what if in time the situation has changed and, again, for whatever reason, you don't or can't share with us.  It's our lives on the line in this if they catch us.  Like I said, we're new to this, so it's all a bit scary and strange right now."
She hoped that she hadn't made him angry.  She was sure she would be able to get out of here, but that would put her back at exactly at square one.

[Gustovness]

Leroy leaned forward unto the table,

"This information is going to save you a liability of us falling dead in the middle of whatever job you got lined up for us.  Since we can't work until we're medically cleared for nanites, and this will save you nuyen in us not dying in the field due to the little bastards, how about nullifying any interest that we've accumulated thus far?"

Leroy leaned back into his chair.

"Say... whatever financial agreement we've had thus far with our repaying our debt to you, which we're very grateful to have the opportunity for, no bullshit you've really saved our skins here... but how about we start calculating interest from the day of our first job onward?  That'll be sure to save us money in the long run and you don't have runners racking up debt through interest because they can't work to begin with."

Leroy raised his stubby arms in the air in a "oh, what the heck" fashion.

"As far as the free flow of information, that sounds great to all of us.  We can keep that in place."

Leroy didn't look to the others for agreement of his proposed deal.  If someone had a problem with it they'd speak up and right now he had to look firm and confident.  A unified front is what they needed.

[Csjarrat]

Matt thoughtfully considered Leroy's proposition. He liked it, and nodded along.

[Ren]

Tweety gave thought to Leroy’s proposition. ”What you say is understandable. Since I really want you to see this as a mutually beneficial deal, I’m willing to change it the way you suggested. No interest until your first job. Furthermore, I will cover the expenses of the full medical. Now. Another thing you should know about. I customarily don’t pay for the first job of a runner. These jobs tend to be simple, more to measure the runner’s capabilities and his attitude towards the whole business setup. Yet, I feel that you’d feel cheated if it came to this. So I’m willing to let you off the hook for next month’s rent in exchange for your services in that simple assignment. And, as it will be no paying assignment, I am willing to charge interest from the second job on. And of course, the free flow of info stays part of the agreement.
“So, can we now get those appointments with the doctors? The sooner we get on with it, the sooner I can set you up with jobs.”

[MaxKojote]

"I'd be happy to get an appointment as soon as possible unless any of my teammates have any further concerns." Joel responded for himself. He could barely detect the nanites at all; having something like that inside of him really worried him.

[Csjarrat]

Yeah, I'm game, lets go see the doc

[farothel]

"I have some cyber they can hide in," Jade said, "if there are any, they have to go.  I'm in."

[Gustovness]

Leroy didn't attempt at all to hide his smile.  The terms were more than gracious and he wanted Tweety to know he appreciated it.

"We'll knock out the appointments today."

[Ren]

With the newly amended agreement, the team went on to examinations. It took a few days to sort everything out, and it was an uncomfortable few days: with the exception of Leroy, you couldn’t even imagine that so many kinds of examination existed. It took some patience to bear with it but at the end you were very happy, as all results confirmed the complete absence of nanites in your bodies.
The only results that were outside normal results were some kind of increased brain activity in all of you, but the doctors both said that it needed more evaluation to see if it was something temporary, and that you needed to check back for EEG bi-weakly to be sure.

[Ren]

Downtime II

[Ren]

>>Accessing site: address unknown
>>Checking authentication…
>>Checking…
>>Authentication accepted
>>Welcome to ShadowSea JackPoint

>>Hey, Ma’Fan, long time no see. How was last night? Did you have a nice chase with those Spikes boys in the docks?
>>Turbo Bunny

>>Hey, Bunny, you should know me better than that. That was some new crew from what I heard. They did that warehouse heist the news covered. You know me, where I was, they don’t know that something’s missing yet.
>>Ma’Fan

>>Wow, a new crew, how refreshing. Hope they don’t just pop up and then out in a short time. So, what did they take?
>>Turbo Bunny

>>From what I heard, nothing serious. No corporate interests have been circulated yet, at least.
>>DangerSensei

>>Nice, KE seem to be right for a change, then.
>>Kay St. Irregular

>>Yes, although it’s not a first. Anyway, did you hear the latest about Lofwyr? He…
>>DangerSensei

[Ren]

Excerpt from SCMS newscast.

Unknown individuals broke into a warehouse owned by Kelpin Offices Ltd. on SW 108th street, Tacoma, yesterday around 23:00 hours. Knight Errant patrol arrived after a call was made from said warehouse at around 0:30. According to the statements of the guards stationed at the building, a group of armed individuals, unknown in number, have entered the building without authorization, took out both guards swiftly and efficiently, and left with two crates that Breznik Forwarding Ltd. stored at the premises.

Detective Danny Williams, the appointed investigator of the case told us this seems to be the work of professionals: they knew what they wanted to take and left all other ware on the shelves. Also, the security footage for said timeframe is completely missing, which indicates they either had access to the security room or the services of a hacker. Neither Detective Williams nor the representatives of Breznik revealed what was taken, as it might be crucial to the completion of the investigation, although an inside source confirmed that total value of the ware doesn’t exceed 20.000 nujen, which left him completely baffled as to why the thieves spent so much effort on taking just those crates.

It is also an interesting coincidence that Knight Errant had to attend a series of PanicButton reports in the same area last night. Citizens reported gunshots and several vehicles participating in a chase. Knight Errant arrested two people, apparently the members of the go-gang Spikes, but they were not able to interrogate them yet, as both sustained heavy injuries and were transported to the Tacoma Veteran’s Hospital for treatment.
A reckoning between bands is a possible explanation but our criminalistics expert says it was probably a random act of violence, as the area is not the turf of any gang that could compete with the suspected resources of the Spikes. We will know more after the gangers are in a condition for interrogation.

[Ren]

25th of July, sometime around midday

You all woke late after last night's celebration. The real beers - although painfully expensive - were a welcome reprieve after the last few weeks of mainly soy-based foods and beverages, and you noticed that despite what big brands stated, the real stuff hit differently as those synthetic beers.