[Mercy Merchant]

Snow nods.  "Let me try.  I do warn you that my skill set is lacking in certain needed skills, a failing that I will try to correct as soon as possible.  I do agree with you that a place that would spend as much as they must have to sculpt their matrix presence is likely to have security systems."  She sends her commands out to the matrix to see if she can find anything.  She knows that her initial search will take only a few minutes and decides to drop her overwatch to give her the best chance of success.  <Team.  Snow.  I need to concentrate on finding any security nodes on the club so I need to back off on securing the team comms.  Please do not use the system for a couple of minutes.  I will be back up shortly.>

Check for security nodes: 4d6t5 1  Second roll for security nodes: 3d6t5 3  Third roll for security nodes: 2d6t5 1  5 hits in three combat rounds.  Got very lucky on the second roll.

After three combat rounds she has as much as she thinks she will get and goes back to securing the team's comms.  <Team.  Snow.  Back on security.  I can try to detect a hidden node if I know its approximate location.  I will look for gaps that should be covered and concentrate there for something.  Please be cautious.>

[Thvor]

Sam started for the door, but said over his shoulder, "Ah, I see we are intruding upon an intimate moment. Please pardon our interruption. Ma'am, I do hope you are able to help him with his obvious memory issues."

On his way through the office, Sam took a quick glance to see if he could find the bundle of Script the man had "offered".

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow is slightly pleased.  <Clem.  I have identified the main node and there does not seem to be more than the one obvious one.  I would suspect that most of the security devices and other aspects we need access to are tied to that node.  I can try to hack it and you got two choices here.  I can do this slowly and it can take a couple of hours or so or I can make it fast.  Fast is far more dangerous and can get me detected much easier.  Slow takes longer but is less risky.  But once into the system, I should be able to give commands to the various peripherals as long as I do not stretch too thin.  To be honest, I recommend that the rest of you take a nap in the cars while I take the slow way.  It is only about 5 AM now so we have some time.  If I cannot do it slow then we can try fast and take our chances.  Your decision?>

[HydroRaven]

Clem liked the idea of doing things right, but she almost gasped when Snow mentioned the timeframe. The ork had a hard time understanding how it could take more than 10 minutes when it only took her a few seconds to order a soykaf on her commlink. <We don't have hours here Snow. We don't even know if this is where goat-boy is, so we need this done in the time it takes the guys to get here.>

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow thinks for a moment.  <Boss, I don't know how the last guy did it, but cracking security nodes is not meant to be easy.  In this area, quick can be harsh on the hacker and her team.  But, OK, we might not have the time for the slow approach.  I can do quick, but let me try something else first to try to even the  odds.  I can take a quick snoop to give the firewall a poke and get an idea how strong it is.  If it is weak, there is a good chance that other things are weak as well and I can go all in.  If it is strong, I can still try it, but be prepared for the node to react.>  She accesses the matrix to Observe in Detail, with the priority to the firewall then anything else she can glean from the node.

Observe in Detail: 7d6t5 3

[HydroRaven]

Clem simply shrugged and wrote <OK> back to Snow, lost in the complexities of the conversation.

[Crossbow]

Sam locates a small bundle of Horizon corporate cred notes worth 150 nuyen.

-----------------------------------

In the Matrix, Snow's beautiful and severe Snow Queen flings sparkling white dust at the neon woman writhing on the pole.  The dust seems to make the stripper shiver a bit as it circles her, then returns where it came.  Arriving in front of her it coalesces into glass showing a Firewall rating of 6, a System rating of 4 and no active alert on the node.

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow is secretly impressed with the Snow Queen persona as it perfectly fits her attitude.  She frowns at the information her observation had procured for her and carefully works out what she will say to the team.  <Team.  Snow.  This node is well protected by a good firewall and system defense.  I will lay out what I see my options to be.  Option A is I can try to hack the node quickly, but it will still take at least two and probably three direct attempts to get enough control to get in, taking between 3 and 6 seconds.  The firewall of the node is good and it will get an attempt to find me with every direct attempt I make and my stealth needs will not protect me for long.  The truth is that I can probably get in, but I will almost certainly be discovered.  Once that happens I will have only a short time to control the node before they send the mind killers after me and I have to get out.  That should be enough time to grant you access to the building, but you can expect that the node will call for meat security as well.  We could have a fight on our hands and still not get the information we need.  Option B is to go in slow.  With my skill set, this probably means at least two hours and perhaps three.  The plus is that the system defenses might not be able to find me and I can gain access to the security systems of the building.  The minus is that the firewall still has a chance, although much reduced, to find me when I log onto the node and we would have wasted the three hours and still have a fight.  I am sorry that my news is not better.  The node's firewall is simply better than mine.  What do you want me to do?>

[farothel]

Sammy tried to remember what she knew from her trids on hacking.  One of the consultants had said something at one point.
"I got it," she said, "if we can find a camera on the outside and we can access it without being seen by another camera, you can plug in physically.  That would get you into the system, right?  At least enough to get access to the camera feed and maybe spoof it into sending a loop to the control room while somebody else climbs on the roof.  We don't really have to be in the club's node, we just have to have a hole in the camera coverage to get on the roof to check out the transmitter.  And if it indeed goes into this club, you can still hack in.  But just to get on the roof to check things out, I wouldn't do it.  It might just be a retransmitter on this roof."

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow considers Sammy's comment.  "Yes.  I can jack straight in if we can find a port.  Once in that way, I might be able to conceal our movements.  We can look around for that while waiting for the guys to show up."  She gets out of the car, waiting to see if Clem will give the go-ahead on the physical recon.

[HydroRaven]

"Alright, let me have a look around first then" said Clem as she got out of the car and tried to spot any cameras that could have a view on the roof.

Perception ~ Intuition 4 + Perception 3 + Perceptive 1 + Reception Enhancer 2 + Vision Enhancement 3 + Actively Looking 3: 16d6t5 7 no glitches

[Necrogigas]

After they exited, O'Connor motioned back to the room, "Told ya scumbags like that actually do turn a blind eye as long as they get their cut." He gave a shrug, "Well, at least that was entertaining, if not useful." While walking across the street, he asked Sam, "I know you said the Johnson only cares about recovering the blackmail, but do ya think there'll be a bonus in it for us if we wipe out this extortion racket?"After returning to the vehicle, O'Connor began watching excerpts of the A-kidz' and Bacchus' shows while waiting to hear back from the girls. He wanted to get an idea of what kind of gang Bacchus was trying to run and how much of a bite it really had.

[farothel]

"I can make someone invisible," Sammy said, "and that also works for cameras."

[HydroRaven]

When Clem got back to the team, she laid out what she had seen. "Here are the cameras I found" said the ork as she put AROs on a map of the area. "The problem is they are protected by grills, and the only way I can see us having access to them would be from the roof itself. I could go on that roof with Sammy's help, but once up there I wouldn't know what to do with the cameras." The ork, short on ideas, just shrugged and asked "Does anybody have any ideas?"

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow chips in.  "If Sammy or you can help get me to the roof, I still might be able to jack in.  Some grills are meant to prevent damage from punkers throwing rocks.  Did you notice if the grills have a small mesh or one large enough for me to get my hand in?