[Poindexter]

"Honored loa, you are doing this favor for me, and I am grateful for any assistance you can provide. I would prefer you to not be discovered in the first place, but if you are, improvise how you like - I have merely provided some ideas. If you can't convince them you are this person, then flee on foot - they are not likely to harm your host, though they may try to disable him. You can ditch the ring discreetly during the chase so that we can recover it later. Ideally, they will never know anything is amiss until he awakes tomorrow and discovers the ring is gone, but if they know something's wrong anyway, we may as well complete the job. Oh, and one more important thing - no one is to come to too much harm, so fisticuffs only. Don't throw anyone off a building or into anything worse than a broken bone or two. Please."

As she speaks with the Loa, Dolly notices Janitor next to her on his comm, whipping through AROs, apparently seeing if he can dig up some dirt on any of the guards nearby. His facial expression says it's not going well though. The Loa peeks over at you expectantly, waiting for you to give it the order to "Go".

[Malevolence]

Dolly relays the finalized plan to Janitor, waits for him to object or get into position, then gives the spirit the go ahead. Relying on Janitor to keep an eye on things from the meat world, she splits her attention between the that and the astral.

[Jack_Spade]

Mike cursed silently. Why had those gangers to be emotionally stunted man-children, unable to form a stable relationship? He sighed. That question answered itself.

But just in case he kept their comlink numbers ready to dial. He would just have to use greed instead of jealousy if he wanted to set them against each other.

To Dolly he said: "Sounds solid enough. Go ahead, I'll watch your back."

[Poindexter]

For the Janitor, it's a slightly tense five minutes. His experience keeps telling him that a squadron of roto-drones is going to pop up from behind and lay into the two of them at any time, or that there's a sniper waiting for him to be on just this very rooftop right now to get revenge for that job back in the day that went bad, but nothing happens. The rooftops are clear as clear can be, and the streets never stop partying. For Dolly, it's different. She's had nothing but confidence in her Loa the entire time and so when she sees the sliding glass door open and Skim Kid step out onto the balcony for a smoke in his boxer shorts, she's not suprised, but she is pleased. He takes a few drags off of a handrolled spliff, found in an ashtray on the balcony before looking up at you and smiling. When he's had as much as he wants, he turns back toward the door and leaves the spliff where he found it and the ring you're after next to it on a crappy glass end table before headed back inside.

[Jack_Spade]

"Now, that is a pleasant surprise." Mike switched all his gear into silent mode. "I'll keep an eye on the matrix environment, while I go down to my bike. If you could fly over there and bring the ring down to me, I'll have the tag eraser ready and we can make ourselves scarce.
You ever had a ride on a Mirage?"

[Malevolence]

Pleased at the result, she nods at the Janitor's plan and quietly flits down to the balcony. She snatches up the ring quickly, barely stopping, and after returning to the roof, she gives the all clear to the loa to make his exit, thanking him and promising him . She takes a moment to examine the ring in detail, then she takes an indirect route down to meet up with Janitor. Just before arriving, she turns her sneak suit to solid black, kills the wireless on it, removes her mask, and drops her concealment, making herself visible and inconspicuous - or as much so as a pixie can be. She still makes an effort to stay out of sight of the guards they had spotted earlier.

As she hands the ring over to Janitor, she messages him.

<< @Janitor [Dolly] Should we tell One that we have the ring, or save it as a surprise for our meet tomorrow? I imagine he's still up if we wanted to arrange to drop it off tonight. >>

[Jack_Spade]

<<Faster is better. Let's get that piece as fast as possible to its new owner. If this blows up, I don't want to be holding the bag.>>

[Malevolence]

As Janitor wipes the data tags and scans for any that might be left, Dolly sends a message to One.


<< @One, Janitor [Dolly] Hey, we have a gift for you. You free to meet tonight, now? >>


She then takes a position on Janitor's Mirage and as they depart, awaits One's reply.

[Poindexter]

[Phillips Highway northbound, Southside, Jacksonville, CAS. April 14th, 12:41am 2076]

It's a gorgeous night for a bike ride and Janitor is a fine driver. No one looked twice at the two of you as you started up the bike and tooled down a sidestreet for a few blocks before turning onto Phillips and disappearing into the night. It's as if you haven't stolen a six-figure valued ring from a violent drug dealer in his sleep as you obey the speedlimit and roll through the "safe part" of the ghetto, on your way to riverside, as you assume that's the area One67 is most likely to be. You've only been on the road for five minutes or so, the Fuller Warren bridge still  looming before you in the near distance when you get a response from your contact.

<< @One, Janitor [Dolly] Hey, we have a gift for you. You free to meet tonight, now? >>

<<@R4ngT34m [Jeighk] Busy shootin a trid, yo! Rooftop! Old bikeshop, wiz? College and stockton, Yamean?!>>

[Malevolence]

Dolly looks to Janitor before sending the okay.


<< @One,Janitor [Dolly] We'll be there in a few minutes. >>


"Once we cross the bridge, let's take a few precautions just in case we have a tail, maybe a switchback or something." She then shifts her perception to the astral and looks behind them for any astral entities that might be following.



Astral Perception (Assensing): 11d6t5 4

[Jack_Spade]

"Wiz."
Mike nodded while he hit the accelerator, so he could make the next traffic light on deep yellow while keeping an eye on the following traffic. Next he looked for a roofed parking lot. There he stopped for a few moments and took a look into the matrix for potential spy drones following them.

Matrix Perception: 8d6t5 1


When he was satisfied he took of again towards the "filming location". Hopefully, they wouldn't be witness to a snuff film or some other deranged fetish. Despite his experience, Mike still had problems to keep his lunch in when confronted with that kind of stuff.

[Poindexter]

[Rooftop of the Bikeshop, Riverside, Jacksonville, CAS. April 14th, 12:52am 2076]

College and Stockton is an active drug corner and business is booming right now. The good news is it's about 2 degrees cooler here in Riverside than on the Southside due to the westerly winds moving over the St Johns river to get to you. The bad news is that Riverside smells a LOT worse for the same reasons. The man running the show here on the corner is a large Filipino ork with long cartoon red hair. You haven't seen him talk with anyone, except to get more food from one of the numerous temporary stalls set up on the street nearby, but you're sure he's the manager of this particular area. And a profitable little area it is, even without the citywide party that seems to be happening at the moment.   After parking the bike, the two of you find your way around the back to the fire escape and, following the flashing lights and loud music from above, climb your way to the rooftop.

As your gaze reaches up over the edge, you come face to face with what looks like a major motion picture being filmed up here. There's a crew of about eight or nine people, mostly humans and dwarves, controlling three large mobile lighting rigs as well as the near dozen or so flyspies and rotodrones hovering and swarming around the three performers who are bathed in light from multiple sources at once. Two of the men, you recognize as Zane, the dwarven DJ from earlier, and One67. But the third, a young, well-muscled black orkish male with thick, tight cornrows; you don't recognize. They're standing on the edge of the building and rapping cryptically in all directions as a young human magician off camera (Although, it'd be fair to say that due to the sheer number of cameras up here flying around, there probably isn't a single inch of this rooftop that is actually "off-camera".) projects a constantly changing stream of clothes onto their bodies, presumably through trid phantasm or some similar spell. He's making no effort to hide his involvement in the process, and is in fact, hamming it up a bit, swaying and dancing with the music as his illusions change again and again. He almost seems to want people to know "Hey! I'm the mage, here!"

It only takes maybe half a verse before One67 notices the two of you and smiles all huge. He stops in mid-verse and starts walking purposely toward the two of you with that big goofy grin of his. "Ayo!" His large voice booms over the music for a brief moment and you notice the trid crew behind him collectively give a disappointed groan as the filming abruptly grinds to a halt. "Ayo, Fuck yall mawfuckers, yo! Yall mugs be gettin paid by the hour and shit, so for real, fuck yall and all that bullshit, wiz?" He finishes yelling at the crew as he passes by a folding chair, picking up a spliff from it on his way to meet you. "So... Whatchyall think, huh? The set-up... The beats... The concept... Shit is frakkin nova, yo, wiz?" Then, he changes his tone to a more serious one.

"So, what's the deal, yo? I know yall aint come here to be in no rap trid..."

[Jack_Spade]

As soon as Mike had seen the cameras, he had reapplied his ballistic mask - no need for video evidence...
"Damn straight. The deed is done. We got your precious. And with any luck no one knows yet it's gone.
But would you mind to step away from the cameras for a minute? I'm allergic to fencing gear in front of witnesses."

[Malevolence]

Dolly is wary of the crowds of strangers. As Janitor stops his bike, she darts up into the night, racing more to get ahead of the crowds than to get to One. Even during the height of her popularity, most of her "appearances" were studio events, usually shot in small venues with a relatively small film crew. It was odd, her nervousness around crowds, as pixies tended to live in communities of hundreds, flitting amongst the heaving boughs of the larger trees of a forest. She supposed it was more to do with all of the people in the crowds being so big.


Out of decorum, she waited near the roof for Janitor to catch up, not announcing herself or dropping her concealment until he was with her again. They emerged onto the roof together and soon One came over to meet them.


"So, what's the deal, yo? I know yall aint come here to be in no rap trid..." One said, and Jack responded in the negative. Truthfully, Dolly was a little tempted to at least stay and watch, but it was time for business first. And despite the noise, there were too many ears around.


<< @One [Dolly] Too many cameras - and witnesses - for discussing business openly. We've decided to take your offer of six gees per with no Face. Toward that end, we saw an opportunity and took it. Job's done, so you can take delivery of your ring now or whenever you have our nuyen. >>

[Poindexter]

"Damn straight. The deed is done. We got your precious. And with any luck no one knows yet it's gone.
But would you mind to step away from the cameras for a minute? I'm allergic to fencing gear in front of witnesses."

He gets a look of amused astonishment on his face, contemplating what your words might possibly mean.

<< @One [Dolly] Too many cameras - and witnesses - for discussing business openly. We've decided to take your offer of six gees per with no Face. Toward that end, we saw an opportunity and took it. Job's done, so you can take delivery of your ring now or whenever you have our nuyen. >>

One feels the buzz of the comm in his pocket, retrieves it, and reads the message quickly. As he does, his jaw drops. Looking back up at the two of you like you'd just come back with the Kraken's head, he inhales to say something, then cuts himself short. He puts the spliff in his mouth and lights it, taking a big long hit off it before blowing it out toward the sky in a massive cloud with a huge smile. Still holding it in his lips, he says, "Chip truth? A mug thought yall been done some legwork or sum and yall mugs was comin back to hit a mug up for some supplies or whatnot, but yall actually got the shit on you, right now? Daaaaaaaaaam, yall mugs are some NOVA ass runners, huh?" He takes another hit off the spliff before offering it to the two of you again. "Yall smoke after a run? Either way. Yall done took real good care of a mug tonight, so I'll tell ya what. I'm doin yall seven five a piece for bein so god damn quick, yo. That cool with yall mugs? I got it on me right now if yall want it now. Just pull out and let a mug slot ya, wiz?" Seeing the looks on your faces and your discomfort at the idea of conducting illegal business in front of all these cameras, he quickly adds, "Over there, down them fire escape stairs, word?"

During the exchange, One just seems like he wants to get this done quickly and get back to his video shoot. He barely inspects the ring, only giving it a cursory once over in the flashlight of his comm before dropping it in his pants pocket and producing a credstick.

Five minutes later, the two of you are back on street level, down one expensive ring, but up a credstick with a fifteen thousand nuyen balance. One had asked both of you if you wanted to be in the trid he was filming, and damn near BEGGED Dolly, but you both declined for your various reasons. The night is still young and the party the whole city is having doesn't show signs of stopping anytime soon. Whether your profits will be saved and invested in your future or blown through during a wild night on the town is up to you.