Al got down to Diver Pete's to find that his initial quick assessment had, of course, been entirely correct. The clientele was a mix of Tongans and non-natives, but it was all corp. It was easy to see why when the first beer he ordered came complete with a twenty nuyen price tag. Sure-fire way to keep out the riff-raff. Well, it was good beer, and they were spending a fortune keeping the place cool, considering that it had no walls facing the beach. Which was fine with Al, since apparently the section nearest the place was clothing-optional. Most of the ladies kept their bottoms on, but it was still value-added on the view.
So he sipped his beer, ogled as directed by Isaint, and looked for Evo people. They were ridiculously easy to spot. Al didn't spend a lot of time around corp types, but they did love their branding. The ones in business attire all wore little lapel pins, lest their affiliation be in any doubt. The ones in casual wear sported Ts and other beach wear literally flashing neon with corp logos. He didn't want to think how gaudy their AR displays likely were. A lot even wore their photo ID/card keys on lanyards around their necks like badges of honor. Apparently MCT and Shiawase had healthy presences on the island. All human, their reps. The Evo contingent was large, and of course a lot more mixed - virtually all of the metas in the place bore the marks of the Japanese-cum-Russian mega. It was, truly, a target-rich environment.
Al also kept an eye out for Rick. He knew the guy might have other Satanist tasks to complete in preparation for the job, so he wasn't sure if he'd come down. But it was always nice to have a wingman, especially one he trusted. Not to mention the only other round-ear on the squad. Before he caught any sight of Rick, however, he was surprised to see Alyce. He'd thought she was stuck in the room, but of course she could do her matrix thing anywhere - and she rarely missed an opportunity to get naked. Despite Isaint and Rick's ministrations, she looked about the same, unless you knew her as well as Al did. But as she got comfortable in a chair, it was clear that her face was all they'd altered. There were plenty of undressed women around, but few that were unescorted, and her flawless elven figure turned a lot of heads. He could already spot guys getting ready to make their plays.
That was fine, the more distractions the easier his job would be. Once he got to work, he had the ID card off the first guy in about two seconds. Dan Freuhauer, Managing Director, Biodevelopment Systems. Seemed the higher up some douche was, the more eager he was to have his title on display. And judging by the two hotties the guy'd been talking to when Al took the card off of him, it was a tactic that worked around here. Just like everywhere.
Under a table, Al scanned the card's chip into his Fairlight. He'd tried just scanning people's cards from a distance, but they were set to require five seconds direct contact. Smart. The old fashioned way, however, sufficed. Within an hour, three men had approached Alyce and he'd collected, scanned, and safely returned seven managers' access cards. Reviewing the collected data, he saw that he now had access to what looked like some good chunks of the aqualogy, though it was hard to be sure without the schematics. Later he figured he'd compile the access codes' root algorithms into a master that could get into all these places, and maybe extrapolate the beginnings of more codes from that. He figured Alyce would be an ace at something like that.
Next he grabbed a mop - you could hang around anywhere pretty much invisibly if you had a mop - and loitered around the changing cabanas. Lots of people buying time in them, leaving their stuff - ALL their stuff, it being pretty hard to carry a commlink when you were naked - and hitting the beach. Well, to be fair, lots of them took tote bags, and others had their 'links implanted, or they had swim-friendly models. But within a couple of hours of picking locks he'd still managed to find and use a cable to rape and pillage the drives of four Evo-connected 'links. He'd review his booty later.
He was also keeping an eye on Alyce. By now he knew how she worked - even though her meat was senseless, she had all of her sensors feeding into her virtual world, allowing her to emerge from hot sim to interact when guys approached her. He had no doubt she was fine without him, but they were on the job, and he was mindful of her back.
And then Isaint sent him a text and he figured it might be time to move on to the Bunga-Bunga Club.
