[Mercy Merchant]

Tanya calmly sips at her tea while she watches the others.  She knows that she has no skill in negotiations and prefers to let others work it out.  She and Ni Ni are close friends, but this is business.  More, it is Octagon business and Tanya is not going to play on their friendship for this.  Besides, she is in total agreement with John Chance on his understanding of the way things work and she holds her questions until the bargain has been struck.  It does strike her as odd that the Triad is not using their own security people on this sort of job.  Could they perhaps suspect an internal conflict?

[Jayde Moon]

Ni Ni listens impassively and then nods.  "Very well, I will raise the offer to ten thousand nuyen, each, as well as offer two thousand of that as an up front, good faith payment.  Is this agreeable?"

She pauses to see if her offer will be accepted.

[trv123]

Calico nods quietly, looking around the group for confirmation.

[Poindexter]

Calico nods quietly, looking around the group for confirmation.

Eugene gives Calico a small, barely perceptible nod in response.

[Señor T]

He looks around the group, noting their reactions. "If it works for the others, then it works for me."

[Mercy Merchant]

Tanya smiles and nods.  "I am in, of course."  She looks at Kumiho and Chance to see what their responses are.

[Poindexter]

"Wiz."

Eugene sits back and begins preparing a shopping list in his head.

[Stoneglobe]

"That seems reasonable. I would be happy to take your case." I glance across at the Asian male to see if he too will be join us.

[skulldixon]

Kumiho nods in agreement

[Mercy Merchant]

Tanya smiles at everyone in turn before looking over at the hostess.  "So, we are all agreed.  I, for one, would like to know if you give us some details of what happened and why you need independent runners instead of using Octagon people?"

[Jayde Moon]

The Chinese woman nods.  "Excellent, I am pleased you are all on board.  To answer your questions, what was stolen where an ancient vase featuring the eight immortals, an ink tablet fashioned as a turtle, an ancient 'money-tree' from the period of Han, and a statue of Zhenwu, the perfected Warrior.  None of these artifacts has an awakened value, that is known."

She looks to Calico and continues, "As for our... 'political' situation, we have not noticed anything amiss, mores than what is normal activities amongst the Triads.  It is no secret hat the Octagon and the Yellow Lotus are at odds and both of our organizations hold nothing but contempt for the 88s.  It is as likely that one of them is behind this as it is anyone else."

Finally, she turns to Tanya, "As for details, it occurred last night sometime.  During a communications check, we received no response.  Our first responders arrived to discover the security contingent was dead.  The security footage had been tampered with.  Currently the location is secured."

"I have received permission to use outside assets for two reasons.  The first is to minimize knowledge of the theft.  Even amongst our own people, if word gets out, this could cause a loss of face.  The second is that I presume that once the artifacts are located, it will take special talents to retrieve them," she offers Tanya a short smile before looking back to the group as a whole.

"If there are any other questions, please do not hesitate to ask."

[Stoneglobe]

Lean back in my chair I slip the stylus from the side of my commlink holder, call up my notes app, "I hope you don't mind Ms Johnson but I always find it easier organise my thoughts when I have material on hand to reference", and open up an new folder before jotting down relevant information as she talks.

"Presumably, as this is a temple there were also monks in attendance as well as security. Can I ask if they were harmed at all during the robbery or if it was just your security contingent? It would be useful to question anyone who was on site at the time.

We would also require access to the crime scene and whilst the security footage has been tampered with access to the data there would be most useful and potentially informative.

It would be a great help if we were able to examine the bodies of the security who were found at the scene.

A list of who has been on site, for elimination purposes obviously, and what they have done since arriving on scene to understand the potential of post crime contamination is also necessary.

Outside of your physical security assets how were the temple and artifacts secured? Oh and do you have images of the missing items?"

[skulldixon]

Kumiho thinks about what our host has said trying to figure out the various angles.

You said that these items, to the best of your organization's knowledge are none awakened. So they most likely were not stolen for magical reasons. However, the thrift could still cause your clan to loose face. However, that might be what the thief wants us to think. , Kumiho pauses for a moment before getting to the question he has in mind. So two questions; were the pieces within public display in the temple? Has there been anyone in memory that has taken an interest in visiting the temple and/or examining the heirlooms. An art historian? Archaeologist? Even a Art restorer that may have work on the pieces.

[Señor T]

"I assume the location is secured still since you're doing your best to keep this under wraps. Seems to me like all you can tell us is what evidence you know of so far and who your organization suspects aside from your rivals... if anyone. Then we get over to this temple and ask some questions and find some clues before the trail gets cold."

[Mercy Merchant]

Tanya looks at the others on the adhoc team.  "Do we want to gather someplace neutral after we get what information we can and determine what our strengths and capabilities are?"