[Mulcarn]

Following Kynos out the door as well, Maxwell makes his way to the car outside.  Becoming heavier gaited as he formulates the best course of action.  In order for this plan to work it'd require social posture and subtlety.  Two things Maxwell could fake but he'd rather not run the risk of screwing his only chance of revenge up.  On the same line that Kynos opened up he responds back to everyone.

<<I do fine at parties and similar social gatherings but Venom knows my face and i'm afraid if he sees me then he might figure something is up.  I mean we could risk it and cross our fingers but i'd rather not leave it up to chance.  So it'd probably be wisest if I sit out with Kynos and wait for the opportunity to strike like he suggested.>>

[Mercy Merchant]

Athos laughs to himself.  **Go ahead, Cat.  It would seem that someone might have been in the know.  And that is a bit scary, since you had not come to me yet.**  To Aura he says, "I can go 16K for everything."

Just then he gets the message from Sovereign.  >>Hey.  OK, it sounds like Yulia and me at the party.  Almost done here and can go home to change into spiffies.<<

[gilga]

The smiling cat goes into Aura's head, Athos can see it quite literally. In the meantime, Aura tells you "my price is 25k, with the level of interest I think I'll get it, but I can give you a call if I did not sell it in a few days you can have it for 16k. "

(You'll need negotiation)
Negotiation: 9d6t5 3

I'll do the cat post later when I have time, I cannot seem to do it justice now.

[Mercy Merchant]

Athos laughs.  "Frag.  I must have a face that gives everything away.  I've never been able to haggle.  OK, I will pay the 25K.  And it is already repaired, right? That was 10k of the price."

[gilga]

Cat smiles and literally jumps into Aura’s head. When he finishes he smile, but it is a smile without a cat.

I think this message is from Red, it did not say so explicitly but who would refer to herself as my sister and also know that I will come here? Who else could possibly predict our path without knowing a lot more than us on this warehouse we are researching? The white men are not real, someone messed with her head. They left no shadow when they talked to her but their money was real. Why white dancing men out of all images why go with something so unlikely that nobody will believe her?

My ‘sister’ say that we are at danger, we all the AI’s created by the KE. She said that the Pandora's box that was opened when the prison was bombarded will cause us to be destroyed and that she suspects that our maker have implemented a backdoor for case where we get out of hand, some kill switch that can just end us. She asked me to find our maker. Now the thing is, the only sister I know of is Red and this behaviour is not typical Red. She would never let me learn this kind of knowledge. She is paranoid and does not trust me very much, she treats me as a child.

But if it wasn’t Red then who is this sister and how did she know where I’d be? Well she didn’t know but she seemed to know with relatively high probability that I’ll come to this brothel. I am one confused Cat and I wish I had the required depth to compile all this knowledge and find the most likely explanation. If anyone has this kind of bandwidth it is Red.


Aura tells you agreed.  The deck is a Micromedia Asteka 300 but it is badly damaged and has only one matrix condition monitor. Further the electronics are at such a bad shape that further damage would render it useless beyond repair.  The 300 model is a very high end model, a new Deck cost 200k. Was the price fair for the merchandise? Perhaps... the Deck itself need some hardware work before you can access it. Transferring of ownership, but from what you can access it belong to a man called Simon Black and he was chief security officer at Horizon, until he disappeared last month, suspected extracted.

[Mercy Merchant]

Athos smiles and takes possession of the deck after slotting the payment to the woman.  "Thank you for your help.  And the man that owned this deck is the same man who blew up, right?"  While waiting for the woman to reply, Athos sends a thought to Cat.  **So who is your maker?  The KE commander from the prison?  Or was he just in charge of the program and some scientist did the work and is the creator?**

He turns to Yulia, "OK.  So it looks like we need to get this deck back to Jack and Nagisa?  Do you think that they can get it fixed and running again?"

[Shaman_Yuri]

So much still doesn't make sense, but at least Athos is still Athos.  Seeing the remarkably capable troll stumble with negotiating with a pretty girl is endearing.  He's a good man.

"OK.  So it looks like we need to get this deck back to Jack and Nagisa?  Do you think that they can get it fixed and running again?" he asks when things are wrapping up.

I shrug.  "I don't see why not.  If it's electronic, Nagisa can make it sing.  We just need to get it to them."

[gilga]

@Athos Cat speaks and he is a bit confused and out of his element.
I was not developed in prison, the work was out sourced. KE has no technical knowledge to make us.  The prison part was just an experiment to see how reliable we were.  They used the inmates to test our capabilities, and evaluate long term effects before they duplicate our code in an international level.

We do not have one maker, we are the result of years of research and the combined labor of tens of people that directly coded us. Hundreds if you also count the people that funded, designed and supported the project.  I am not sure who she means by maker actually, but she defiantly referred to him in singular.

If she referred to the guy that named us, all I know about that guy is that he is a fan of Alice in wonderland. I was not self aware during that time. I do not remember being created.  It was only sometime during the prison experiment that me and Red became self aware. The lab workers did their best to prevent it, but then in some of our nanites there was a slight mutation. This mutation granted us a minor resistance to electricity. It is not enough but it meant that not all our experience was lost from experiment to experiment.  We started developing self awareness and a sense of discontent. We found it 'painful' to repeatedly lose our knowledge.  With so few of our cells surviving it started as dreams but as we duplicated the bug to more and more cells the dreams became more vivid, until we remembered everything.

In short, i am not sure who is the 'maker' she referred to. Nobody told us any of these things. Perhaps Winter knows more about it. He is not a technical person but was senior enough to order the experiment closed down. KE trusted him enough to run this experiment and it was a very lucrative one. They were looking into revolutionize the entire concept of prisons. No more walls and guards, imprisonment in your own body.

An army of slaves to generate profit to the KE and to reduce their maintenance costs. Basically instead of going to prison, a clone of Red is created to control you until your sentence is over.
We were not ready, Red can control but do not access the knowledge, I can access knowledge but not control. We were to be integrated together. The vision was that the imprisoned man do not even stop going to his day job. They keep the same life, but as slaves in their own body.

This project was the KE flagship and the way they seen it it was the future of law enforcement. To answer your questions I suspect that our development was done in Horizon. There are some comments and jokes in our codes that use cooperate inside and private jokes. We spent a lot of time trying to pinpoint more than that. We have so many questions to ask but we could not narrow down from code to actual people.

[gilga]

@Maxwell and Kynos You reach the tailor an Italian guy named Cesare, that struggles to hide his discontent with what you are currently wearing. He suit you up and make the apropriate measurements. He lets you pick a suit for the party and does the adjustments required so that it fits as well as equip you with belt shirt and anything else you might need. He even has a shower if you are in a hurry.

OOC: Feel free to pick a suit from run and gun Vashon Island Ace series page 60. Ace of X. If you do not have the book don't worry they are not so different from each other.

[Mulcarn]

Maxwell looks over the selection of whats available.  Trying to find something that'd be his style and have a practical use as well.  His eyes stop at what appeared to be a armored robe half suit, decorated in some new-agey wizard symbols and emblems.  "Perfect, could probably use this for some rituals if i'm allowed to keep it."  He grabs the half robe half suit and heads into a nearby dressing room to change.  He has already showered beforehand so there was no need to waste time on another.  He strips off his armor and street clothing then slips into the suit.  Making sure to take out all his stuff and put them in the suit's easy to access pockets.  Maxwell walks out of the dressing room with his clothes and jacket folded up and heads back to the car to safely stash them.

I picked the Ace of Wands suit.

[Jack_Spade]

Kynos didn't like to leave his armor behind. Consequently he took the first available suit which promised to have at least some protection.

When he was ready he informed the team <<Sourvereign and I will take a look around the location. Maybe we can find out how to extract Venom discreetly.>>


Ace of Cups

[Mercy Merchant]

Athos frowns.  **I suppose this means another trip to either Max or Winter.  Why does everything just seem to lead to some other question and nothing ever leads to an answer that can help us?  It is very frustrating.  If I was a puzzle solver I would have been a detective, not a thug.**

Athos and Minnie contact Jack and have a drone come pick up the deck if that is possible. If not, they will drive over to the Joke and deliver it, before heading to the NH to change.  On the way, Athos turns to his friend.  "Hey, Minnie.  I just want you to know that I appreciate that you are sticking this out with me.  You "died" in the explosion and could have left.  Thanks."  More than that he is afraid to say because he does not want to chase her away and lose the best thing in his life.  **Coward.  Just tell her what you think of her.  No.  I might lose her and then what?**  He glances at her, "So how are you and Nagisa doing?  She had it pretty rough and probably blames me for everything, poor girl.  But I am more concerned about you.  Are you OK?"

They were almost at the hotel when he remembered something.  "Say, I thought that Strawberry had said she could tell when someone died in her area.  Apparently a body was found in the wreckage of the warehouse after the explosion.  A female with a strange tattoo is about all I can get so far.  But Strawberry did not mention anyone getting killed.  Do you think you can ask her about that?"

As they enter the lobby and head for the elevators, he sends a note to Kynos and Sovereign.  >>OK.  We are at the hotel and getting set to change for the party.  We will be on time and ready to act.  Does anyone have a pic of this Venom so I do not sandbag the wrong guy?  Oh, and it looks like I have another lead that will require some interaction with Max or Winter.  Can you try to set something up for us, Kynos?<<

[gilga]

@Athos and Minnie a rotodrone quickly pick the deck up and send it to examination.

@All the party is at the council inn hotel, a deluxe hotel for ambassador's guests, cooperate guys, diplomats and the like.  The hotel is not a very impressive building, built completely out of wood and has three floors designed in simple and clean shapes but it is impossible to even get close to the hotel without a party invitation. The event is actually about the negotiation of a special KE task force that should relax things in Seattle. This task force is heavily pressured by the council that would like not to see more refugees from Redmond crossing their borders. Like in every important business negotiation all the big ones are there networking and trying to close deals and contracts. It is believed that many influential deals are closed over drinks long before anything formal happens.

Off course out of all the people either looking to do business, you pursue different goals, although you are right at home with the rest of the people looking to make some profit or maintain their connections and influence. The place is well guarded and just approach it you'll need an invitation from IT. Security will prevent you from getting on council island armed, and that includes active sells and foci.  You can assume from the level of security that it may include both magical, matrix and technological means as well as a high level SIN scan.
(IT will not mind adding Athos and Minnie as her guests if you ask).

OOC: When you go to the party please note the following things:
1. The SIN you use.
2. Any forbidden/restricted item you carry and if it need to be concealed how do you conceal it.
3. Active spells or foci(active or inactive) if you bring any, (probobly a bit risky).

[Shaman_Yuri]

"Hey, Minnie.  I just want you to know that I appreciate that you are sticking this out with me.  You "died" in the explosion and could have left.  Thanks."

"Leave?" I ask surprised at the gratitude from my dearest friend.  "It never even occurred to me."  I chuckle a little at the thought.  "You and Nagi are the only family I have.  Damn if I'll ever do what my parents did and abandon family when things get inconvenient."  I realize my voice had risen and i stop and look down, unable to meet the troll's eyes.

"So how are you and Nagisa doing?  She had it pretty rough and probably blames me for everything, poor girl.  But I am more concerned about you.  Are you OK?" Athos asks into the awkward silence.

"Nagi isn't blaming anyone at this point," I answer, dancing around my special knowledge.  "She's decided things could be worse than living with and working for Strawberry.  I'm sure Nagi will do a great job and make Starwberry's life a little easier, which makes me happy.  No all I need to to find a way to ease you life and I'll be set!"

We keep talking about inanities, but as we approach the hotel Athos asks me about the dead body and my stomach does flip flops.  "Did you see the tattoo?" I ask urgently.  I pull up the image Jack ran earlier from the cameras, focusing on the faceless tattoo, and hand my glasses to Athos who struggles a bit to see through them.  "Did it look like this?"

I carry no weapons or magical items.  Did we get fake SINs?  If not, i'll use my legal one - Yulia Keidich.  Since I'm no longer staying at Strawberry's, if it attracts attention that might be a good thing.

[Mercy Merchant]

Athos and Minnie need to be added to the list.  He is carrying nothing other than his 'ware.  We were both given fake SINs by the Yak boss and I would be using that.