[Poindexter]

He nods his head quickly. "Fair nuff." He takes his hand out of his pocket, bringing with it a battered meta-link with a faded wood grain decal on it. Sliding it across the table, he says "Burn job. Gotta be done by 5am tenaht. 25k a head. E'erything else's own the link. Deal?"

Baba stares at him a moment, wondering if he was actually going to say something coherent before realizing that was too much to ask for. She wasn't sure if he was offering to pay each of them 25k, or if he was implying that she was going to have to 'burn' some people, and that he was going to give her 25k per dead guy. The latter sounded like a swell job to her, but she doubted this bumpkin could afford that. It was probably the first one. So what did he mean by a 'Burn' job?

"I'm gonna have to check the 'link for details before I agree to that price, unless you want to be more forthcoming yourself." Baba replies, reaching for the commlink with her eye on the Johnson, seeing if he intends to stop her.

He takes his hand off the link and nods as you pick it up, adding only, "Trap house. Gotta go. Tenaht."

[Ryo]

Baba added 'being impossible to understand' to her reasons to charge this guy extra.

"Short notice costs extra. And a whole Trap House? That's also extra. Not to mention it sounds like the kind of thing that might draw undue attention. And, of course, there's the cost of resources to consider." Baba lists off, mentally adding 'dragging me out to the middle of nowhere', 'wasting my time on stupid shit' and 'being a disgusting breeder' to that list.

"What do you think, Hornet? 25k a piece sound fair to you?" Baba turns to Hornet and gives him the floor, knowing the man was a much smoother negotiator than she was.

Negotiation Teamwork test: Charisma 2 + Negotiation 1 + Know a Guy 2: 5d6t5 3
(So +1 Limit and +3 dice to Hornet. The bonus is only +2 dice if Know a Guy doesn't apply.)

[reyjinn]

Zippy turned and looked at Hornet and looked down at the ground. "Oh...hi, Hornet."

Francis acknowledges Zippy with a small nod, "Hello, Zippy. Glad you made it on time."

">Alright, let's get this underway. We have a Johnson somewhere in that truckstop. According to One67, he should be a blonde guy, with a baseball cap and mirror shades. Money should be good, so lets not keep him waiting.<" Baba just walks towards the truck stop without saying a word, the synthesized voice of her matrix persona doing the talking for her directly into the comms of her three companions. She steels herself and puts on a serious look, walking with a purpose and a palpable aura of professionalism.

Time to get down to business.

Francis just grins slightly to himself as Baba is her usual brusque and bad ass self, nodding to Athena as she falls in line with him and Baba. "Evening kid, make sure you keep your eyes open while Baba and I are dealing with the Johnson, OK? You’ll have to be the eyes in the back of our heads."

After Zippy pipes up through the comm Francis replies, >>"Not a bad idea actually, I’ll be happier knowing that you’re looking after the cars. Don’t know how well you know this ‘hood but if we need to get away in a hurry there is an excellent short cut towards the 295. I’ll send you an ARO with a map."
>>To: Zippy
>>Attach: map.img
Once inside Francis looks around the place which only further cements his belief that this is most definitely not his kind of place, following Baba to the Johnson’s booth Francis takes an inside seat so that Baba can get out of the booth in a hurry if action is needed. Looking over the Johnson there is a spark of recognition in Francis’ mind, as he gets comfortable in his seat he composes a text mentally and sends it off,
>>To: Baba Yaga, Athena, Zippy
<<Johnson is Dixie but trying to hide it, so don’t be surprised if he's a bit unhinged. This might be some internal Dixie biz.>>

"Burn job. Gotta be done by 5am tenaht. 25k a head. E'erything else's own the link. Deal?"

"Short notice costs extra. And a whole Trap House? That's also extra. Not to mention it sounds like the kind of thing that might draw undue attention. And, of course, there's the cost of resources to consider." Baba lists off, mentally adding 'dragging me out to the middle of nowhere', 'wasting my time on stupid shit' and 'being a disgusting breeder' to that list.

"What do you think, Hornet? 25k a piece sound fair to you?" Baba turns to Hornet and gives him the floor, knowing the man was a much smoother negotiator than she was.

"Well Baba, I’d say you’ve already mentioned most of the hindrances ahead of us. But the biggest problem is that we either need to clear out the house before setting it on fire, which certainly won’t be no picnic or we set the fire regardless of whether there are folks in there or not." At this point Francis looks the Johnson dead in the eye, "In which case we’re talking about wetwork and that’ll be double what you just offered us."

[Laereth]

Athena stays on the Astral plane. She tries not to look at anything too closely. The problem with being well trained in assensing is that even the ugly stuff becomes easy to spot. She mostly focuses on looking for magic or spirits. She nods at Hornet's greeting and tries a small smile but she's sure it does not come off right. Perception required a little concentration to keep you from getting nauseous. Making her way into the meet, she opts to sit one booth over to keep a little distance, but close enough to hear what's going on.

>>Initiate Video Stream. . .
>>Contact: Zippy
>>Sending Stream

Baba quickly sends a few commands to her DNI and streams a visual to Zippy of everything her Cybereyes are seeing, including her own AROs and commands. The stream from her Americar's sensors is still in the bottom corner of her vision and she glances at it briefly before headed into the Truck Stop, walking with purpose. She keeps an eye out, looking everyone over for any weapons or cyber, before focusing her attention on the Johnson.

Perception Check: Intuition 6 + Perception 6 + Visual 2 + Vision Enhancement 2: 16d6t5 10 8 Hit Limit

Baba sits with a stern look still on her face, eying the Johnson up and down. Zippy would be able to see the way her vision passes him over, lingering on any weapons he may have on him, or anything else she deems worth her notice. She does this quickly though, before looking him in the eye.

"Ah thought there's four a yeh. The fuck're yew trahna to pull, Bob?"

Baba looks at him with a neutral expression that bordered on a frown, looking almost put off for having to respond to such a stupid question.

"He's waiting in the car. If you got a problem with that, I don't care. I came here to talk business, so let's get down to it, shall we?" She states simply, opening her arms a bit in an invitation to start speaking.

Athena does her best to not pay attention to this. Part of their training was to seek approval and it was hard not to be shocked by how her mother responded.

[Poindexter]

"Well Baba, I’d say you’ve already mentioned most of the hindrances ahead of us. But the biggest problem is that we either need to clear out the house before setting it on fire, which certainly won’t be no picnic or we set the fire regardless of whether there are folks in there or not." At this point Francis looks the Johnson dead in the eye, "In which case we’re talking about wetwork and that’ll be double what you just offered us."

"F'yall git them fuckin jukies out first or not is on yall. I could give a sheyit. Jess need the house gown. And aint no "undue attention" neither. Dope houses burn up all the tahm and no one cares. Tonight aint gown be no diffrnt." He taps the table with his fingers as he does some math in his head. "But i git short notice and all. I can do 30, but that's as fur as I can go."

[Ryo]

Baba frowns a bit as she recognizes the neighborhood the house was in. She had a bad feeling this may end up being a conflict of interest for her.

>>Network Call
">I don't like the looks of this job one bit, especially with the house in Krubb territory. Hornet, keep him talking. I need to make a call.<" Baba keeps her face neutral as she sends a few more commands to her DNI. Camm was in with the Krubbs. Hell, he may very well be in with that specific house, and she wasn't about to burn down part of a contact's turf without getting confirmation first.


>>Send Message
>>Contact: Camm
>>"There's a Trap House out on St. Augustine Road, looks like it's in Krubb territory to me. I need info on it. What can you tell me?"

[Poindexter]

>>Send Message
>>Contact: Camm
>>"There's a Trap House out on St. Augustine Road, looks like it's in Krubb territory to me. I need info on it. What can you tell me?"

After about 30 seconds, you get a reply.

>> Incoming Message
  >> Contact: Camm
    >> Reply: That's news to me, girl. I can ask around if ya want. Might take a minute. Wiz?

[Ryo]

>> Incoming Message
  >> Contact: Camm
    >> Reply: That's news to me, girl. I can ask around if ya want. Might take a minute. Wiz?

>>Send Message
>>Contact: Camm
>>"Soon as you can, Camm. In something of a hurry."


Baba frowns slightly, not sure what to think of this. Camm wasn't exactly a low level member of the Krubbs, and specifically dealt in drugs, so the fact he didn't immediately know about the house raised a red flag to her. What house in Krubb territory did this Dixie want them to burn down, and why was he trying to convince them it was a Trap House?

>>Network Call
">Full Disclosure; Just contacted someone I know in the Krubbs that's a drug dealer. If anybody should know about a trap house at that address, it's him, and he had no idea what I was talking about. He's checking into it now, but this job is starting to sound fishy to me.<" Baba looks to the Johnson, knowing that sitting there silently might get him antsy, and decides to speak up.

"So the people that may be in this house aren't part of the job, then? Whether they live or die won't affect our payment." She asks for clarification.

[reyjinn]

">I don't like the looks of this job one bit, especially with the house in Krubb territory. Hornet, keep him talking. I need to make a call.<"

>>”Yep.”

Francis keeps haggling with the Dixie Johnson without much hope of shifting his stance on what constitutes a fair price for the job in front of them, simply killing time while Baba does her thing.

[Poindexter]

>> Incoming Message
  >> Contact: Camm
    >> Reply: That's news to me, girl. I can ask around if ya want. Might take a minute. Wiz?

>>Send Message
>>Contact: Camm
>>"Soon as you can, Camm. In something of a hurry."


Baba frowns slightly, not sure what to think of this. Camm wasn't exactly a low level member of the Krubbs, and specifically dealt in drugs, so the fact he didn't immediately know about the house raised a red flag to her. What house in Krubb territory did this Dixie want them to burn down, and why was he trying to convince them it was a Trap House?

>>Network Call
">Full Disclosure; Just contacted someone I know in the Krubbs that's a drug dealer. If anybody should know about a trap house at that address, it's him, and he had no idea what I was talking about. He's checking into it now, but this job is starting to sound fishy to me.<" Baba looks to the Johnson, knowing that sitting there silently might get him antsy, and decides to speak up.

"So the people that may be in this house aren't part of the job, then? Whether they live or die won't affect our payment." She asks for clarification.

He shakes his head slowly and grimly. "Nope and nope. Nahce an simple. We gotta deal?""

[Koshnek]

Zippy continues to sit in Taco and monitor the meet through Baba's eyes. Literally. He has been listening to the exchange between the blond man and Baba intently. I hope we can clear the house out before we set it on fire. We can talk about that later though. He grabs his comm and sends baba a quick message.

>Send message
 >>Baba
  >>>Baba could you please send me the information on the location? I'd like to figure out the best route to take while everybody is negotiating and figuring out who this house really belongs to.

He pauses a minute then decides to go ahead and state his intentions. "I...um, I know we have to burn the house..but..can we scare everyone out first? If the fixer doesn't care...and we still get paid..lets do it right, yeah? If it doesn't work out that way in the end I understand..we gotta get paid." Having said what he needed to say, Zippy falls silent and continues monitoring the meet.

After a minute or two, something starts...itching in his brain. If this house isn't Krubb, and it's in Krubb territory, who owns it and why does Dixie want to burn it down? Zippy keeps an ear open and an eye on the feed, but he thinks back and tries to recall any rumours that he might have heard about in the area.

[Ryo]

Baba sends Zippy the address, then hears his reply about the house.

>>Network Call
">I don't kill people I'm not paid to kill unless they get in the way of a job. Clearing people out is Plan A. Of course, that assumes we take this job as it stands at all. If this Johnson is trying to trick us, the night will not end well for him. Just depends on what Camm says.<" Baba replies. She then proceeds to take out a cigarette and light it, being deliberate about it, to delay a little for Camm to get back to her.

"Trap house. Burned to the ground. Gotta be gone by 5 AM. We're not getting paid to kill nobody, just to take down a house. Do I got all that right?" She asks, taking a draw on her cigarette. "Is the fire a requirement, or do you just want the house gone and don't care how we do it?"

[Poindexter]

"Trap house. Burned to the ground. Gotta be gone by 5 AM. We're not getting paid to kill nobody, just to take down a house. Do I got all that right?" She asks, taking a draw on her cigarette. "Is the fire a requirement, or do you just want the house gone and don't care how we do it?"

He nods his head at each point as you speak, his cigarette ash falling on the table. "Yep. Yew got it awl raht." At your next question, he looks a little amused. He cocks his head to the side a bit as he thinks briefly. "Naw, I spose it jess needs ta be gown." He chuckles a tiny bit to himself before leaning his elbows on the table and adding "So, we guud on thirty? We got us a deal?"

No word from Camm yet.

[Koshnek]

Suddenly, Zippy recalled a nugget of info he had overheard a while back, and his eyes popped wide open. I remember that area! "Baba! I keep my ears open, and my friend..he knows his way around a deck too. I heard something recently that might be what we're dealin with...I heard about some real good Bliss coming from the Krubb. I found that interesting, so I got my hands on a hit... Well, it's good. I don't use much...if I have a bad day, if the meds mess with my head, or if my head just gets too crazy for me...I'll self medicate a bit, you know? This stuff is way higher quality than the stuff the Krubb usually slings.

That just interested me more, man. So I dug a little deeper. I heard that there's someone in the Krubb trying to go independent.. Whoever it is, they're not big yet..but their product is huge. If someone picks this guy up..it's gunna be trouble for the Krubb. Anyhow, Twine is trying to make a move.. he wants to snuff this guy out. He supposedly has some big shot street sam out of New Orleans looking for the guy. Stomper? No..uh..Curbstomper! This guy takes ears for a souvenir and hes supposed to be tough. I'm not going to say he's as good as you, Baba....We do need to be careful though. I hear he's into voodoo too...I don't know if that means hes awakened or not. He might just be a believer instead of a practitioner. I don't know...but he's made a name for himself."

[Ryo]

">Curbstomper? Figures.<" Baba shakes her head slightly, before remembering that she's still talking to the Johnson.

"I'm familiar with this area, and it looks like Krubb territory to me. Do you know if this trap house is being protected by the Krubbs? A bunch of junkies is one thing, but armed gangers standing in our way is another. Easily handled, but that's the kind of thing I'd like a heads up about." Baba continued to stall, wondering what was taking Camm so long to reply.

">I know Curbstomper. He's an asshole, and you won't see me complaining if we have to put bullets in him. Especially if he's meddling with voodoo spirits...<" She represses an urge to shiver at the thought of voodoo spirits. ">If he is, and we end up crossing paths with him, we'll get to see my girl in action. That's your specialty, right?<" She directs this towards Athena, trying to sound encouraging, though it came off a little forced. She was still getting used to this whole 'parent' thing, and still didn't know how to really talk to her daughter.

">Still, it sounds like this house may be owned by someone independent of the Krubbs, who Twine also wants to see six feet under. That significantly reduces my conflicts of interest. May even get to poach a reward from Curbstomper and get paid twice.<" She made a mental note to mention that to Camm, if his information confirmed her suspicions.