[Crash_00]

Its another miserable day in Seattle where the rain won't quite decide whether or not to come down and just hangs in air clinging to your damn clothes. At about three PM your commlink receives a message from a familiar code,
Hey there chummer, got a job for ya. Meet at the bar, 7 PM and don't be late. RedE EdE

Seven PM rolls around and Ready Eddy's Bar and Grill is as turbulent and seedy as ever. Two orks are fighting in the corner (you'd swear they never leave) and the walls seems to have gotten another coat of bloody gore red paint in the past week. When Ready sees you, he waves you toward the back room.

Heading into the back room, you find yourself looking at a older dwarf. Hair rings the giant bald patch on his head, and he's wearing a pair of brown stained overalls that smell distinctly like they were dragged through a set of stables. He gives you a once over and begins his offer,
"Have I got a job for you. It's short and simple. I need you to extract Tinks for me. She'll be unwilling, but then again they always are when you're keeping them caged up anyway. They'll have her in Isolation Cell A at this address. Usually there are about three guards on duty as well as someone running the cameras. The job needs to be done by tomorrow. I'll pay you 28k, split however you want, 7 upfront. Any questions?"

[farothel]

Najateh looked at the dwarf.  28K was as far as she could tell not bad for a job like this, even if they had to split it seven ways.  But first they need a bit more information.  First of all a simple matrix search on the adress, to see what exactly is there that it has isolation cells.  And next came another look, this time in the astral to check out Mr. J.
assensing (intuition 4 + assensing 2 + improved perception 1=7): 7d6.hits(5)=3

[benhatt]

"4k after the split!" Boosts thought to herself.  That was almost a whole month's rent, keeping her from worrying about moving back home for another 30 days.  BUT - it also put her almost halfway to that new set of smart tires she wanted to get for Faye.  Thoughts of thousands of myomeric rods extending and contracting as she guided Faye into a 90 degree turn: the feel of the road, the throb of the engine, filled Boosts' mind.  OR - 4k would allow for a sweet night out at the clubs.  She cold be plantanas out on the floor.

Aye, you ain't earned it yet," Boosts thought. "Play it like a pro." She takes off her cap and smoothes her hair. 

"Who exactly has this Tinks?," she asked the J. "What sort of hardware should we be expecting the security to have? Pretty heavy, eh?  Otherwise you wouldn't need seven to go after four."

She'll also cue up a map of the address and surrounding neighborhood from her Mapsoft, keeping the info up in AR .

(OOC, I am assuming that mapsofts operate like an advanced Google Map - you see a satellite photo, points of interest, maybe a street view. If I am wrong and need to do some data searching let me know.)

[Crash_00]

[He seems on edge, He's definitely mundane, and He has some high grade headware implants.]

Bringing up the address you find that it belongs to the Redmond/Bellevue Neighborhood Zoo Project, slated to open in 2073. The mapsoft of the area brings you to the same conclusion.

"You shouldn't be worried about the security much, mostly donut munchers with some pistols and vests. Definitely not high grade security. I need the seven of you to make sure you get Tinks out alright. She's a white tiger, not an albino, an actual white. It goes without saying, I don't want her hurt. Do you have the means to knock her out? Keep in mind, she won't stay out long."

[Chrona]

A thin figure in a urban camo and a face concealing helmet joined the group silently, waiting till he could follow in the shadow of someone bigger, and sat amongst them at the meeting. He entered quietly without a word.

-4 to hear him enter. He has his usual disguise (roll pending finding biometric scanner in the books), Tried to make sure he wasn't followed Shadowing 4 + Intuition 5 + Unseen Hands 3 (12d6.hits(5)=6) or seen entering the building Infiltration 4 + Agility 6 + Unseen Hands 3 (13d6.hits(5)=6)

[Xzylvador]

After a brief struggle with himself, deciding whether to join the fray with the two fighting Orks or seeing about getting a job, Rafa walked towards the back room and listened with his arms crossed over his chest.
The money sounded pretty good, a lot more than could be earned picking on smaller gangs nowadays. After the recent bloodbaths, the easy pickings had died so that by now the only targets left were battle hardened and always prepared.

A tiger huh? He wondered for a moment if he would get a chance to wrestle it, sure sounded like a lot of fun trying. Nah, no such luck he figured, some gas or electroshocks would knock it out easy.

"Sounds like a lot of fun, hombre. And if things go wrong, at least you'll have a nice carpet to remember this by.", he said with a smug grin on his face.
Hiring seven guys for a job like this did seem a bit much, but probably they weren't all as awesome as he was himself.

[Larzarus]

Befor Nowa went into the backroom he ordered a beer from the barman. A little bit of fuel for the upcoming run, he thought. Maybe later join the two orks who are fighting in the corner of the bar.  In the backroom, Nowa takes a seat and listen to the dwarf...

Okay, not harming the tiger. How do we get a tiger to cooperate? This will be the problem for one of the smarter guys in this team, I think. What about the guards.... dropping them in one of the other tiger or poisonous reptile cage would be fun. A deadly smile flash over Nowa's face.

"Do you mind when something more ... deadly ... happen to the guards?", Nowa ask the dwarf and add a "Mr.J", remembering some of this things Emilio told him about manners and this boring stuff.


When Nowa heard the last comment from the other runer he also ask:"Oh, how many tigers are there?" Nowa won't mind if they steal more than one of this beast, a new carpet for his home would be nice, too.

[benhatt]

Boosts' eyes widened. "Tigre Blanco! That thing is not ruining my upholstery," she thought.  Suddenly 4K didn't quite feel like enough.  She hoped that whoever was the negotiator at the table would get to haggling soon.  While she waits she is going going to run a few quick data searches on both the tiger and the zoo project.  Boosts wants to know who they are going to piss off when she burns rubber pulling away with a sleeping kitty in the back.

(Logic 4 + Data Search 4 + Browse 4)   "http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3102618/">Data search on Tings (12d6.hits (5)=3)  3 hits

(Logic 4+ Data Search 4 + Browse 4) "http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3102621/">Data search on Redmond/Bellevue Neighborhood Zoo Project (12d6.hits (5)=5) 5 hits

(OOC Edit - just realized I didn't hit the threshold for even the public knowledge, I'll do the searches again the -2 modifier)

(Logic 4 + Data Search +Browse 4 - 2 trying again) "http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3102628/">Second Tings Search (10d6.hits (5)=3) Total 6 hits (public info)

(Logic 4 + Data Search +Browse 4 - 2 trying again) "http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3102629/">Second search on Redmond/Bellevue Neighborhood Zoo Project (10d6.hits (5)=5) 10 total (public info)

[Ethan]

7:12 am

Every day it was the same. Wake up, stretch, shower, shave, and stare at the face peering from the other side of the fogged mirror. A faced that lived a life he no longer remembered. The reflected grin seemed mocking.

He dreamt of flame and a voice that seemed to get stronger in his waking hours.

Today, his "clinic" would be at an abandoned diner a few blocks past Touristville. He was getting nowhere with the people of the Plastic Jungles, so he'd help those who wanted his help.

The well-worn jumpsuit felt right, and he slipped on a white coat before securing his firearm. The jacket could hide the machine pistol he kept in a quick-draw holster, but he stashed it in the medkit along with a few other supplies he felt might come in handy.

He left his apartment without looking back.

----

3:04 pm

He smiled, "I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way..."

The gangly ork child looked up at him, "No it does, doc! You shoot your gun twice, but only the first shot's free of recoil!--"

"Alright, alright, I'll take your word on it." He held up his hands placatingly, "I bow to your Battlefield of Duty expertise. Now help your mom carry your water so we can make sure it's safe for you and your newest brothers and sisters."

Triumphantly, the child ran out and came back dragging both his mother, all of seventeen herself, along with her newest litter and a shopping cart full of bottled water. Buckets of Sterilized and Cleaned water and soap was available outside for washing bottles (inside and out). Then they could load it up with whatever they had on tap.

He smiled at the young mother, and pulled a breath through the astral and Sterilized the gallons of water. And the family's exteriors along with it. With a smaller breath, the water inside bubbled clean. A rudimentary check of the babies showed they were in decent enough health. Whatever food she was getting was getting to the kids as well. He didn't dare cast Nutrition on her, she had the telltales of an addictive personality and he didn't want to think about the consequences of her passing the magical nourishment through her milk.

She offered to pay, again, with a decent 'meal'. At her home. He refused, politely and reminded her and her boisterous sons to return in two weeks for another checkup. He gave them an updated commcode for his latest cheap 'link, in case of emergencies.

The Watcher Spirit  floated just inside the diner, repeating "Please take a seat and the doc will see you shortly. If it's an emergency, please yell," in the form of an analog counting device he didn't even know the name of. It wasn't as packed as before, mostly checkups.

He walked out and said, "Next!"

A jittery elf boy, probably a teen, stood up and walked towards him. His eyes were averted and he rushed into the kitchen. From the limp the boy tried to hide, he knew the cause right away. All traces of a smile vanished as he scanned the crowd and found a face similar to the boy's, just outside, peering in. Swaggering and so sure he was being judged, knowing he was better... He had known guys like that before, and he twitched to fold the mana swirling about him now into a simple lightning bolt.

But it wouldn't do any good. It wouldn't change things for the boy. And he'd scare his patients.

So he looked away and checked his inbox. Just one message.

He replied: I'll be there. Save me a drink.

---

6:55 pm

He walked in, mood as foul as the weather was. Nodding to Eddy, he picks up his beer and downs it in a gulp.

In the back room he nods to those already inside, recognizing some by reputation.

In response to the Dwarf, "I can stunbolt the thing if it's about wake up. Tranqs would be better, and safer."

[Onion Man]

A little late for the party, as usual, Pig lopes into the backroom just in time to catch the 28k comment... a pitcher of cheap in one hand and a carton of powdered breakfast pastries in the other.

{4k to grab a tiger... that's rent, a payment to the Vory, some ink, maybe some real bacon...}

Snacking on his breakfast pastries and slugging back the first pint of cheap, he couldn't hold back a bit of a spit take (spraying beer, powdered sugar, and packaged processed soy proteins onto the floor of Ready Eddy's back room).

"Simple is good, easy is good," he says, pulling a fresh breakfast pastry from the carton, "but why would we need, or want, to drop some donut munching security guards into a pit of vipers?  Do you know what sort of attention that will bring on us?  It's bad enough that we're going to go snag a tiger from under their noses, but bodies means Knight Errant while a stolen tiger might mean all we have to deal with is the donut munchers... better to just leave them KOed and hog-tied in a backroom somewhere," before popping the pastry into his mouth and wiping the pwdered sugar from his fingers under the tabletop.

"I don't mean to be the nervous Pervis here, but could you expand a little on 'Simple'?  Just how do you expect us to walk out with a tranqed tiger and not draw gunships full of attention?  It's never just a couple of donut munchers, there's got to be cameras, motion sensors, some of that mystic mumbo-jumbo security, and all that what-have-you.  If it were going to be as easy as just getting past a couple of card-playing desk watchers, you'd be bribing one of them to get your Tinks instead of talking to us.  What are we really looking at here?"

{At least I'll be able to make a good-faith to the Vory before I'm found dead in a tiger cage}

[farothel]

"I can take her out without any problem," Najateh said, "Get me within shooting range and I drop her without any problem.  A dart loaded with Slab and she's out, no problem.  Just need to know the weight to get the dose right.  I've done this before, brining in critters alive."

4000 a person, I think to myself, sounds like quite a lot for such a simple job.  One has to wonder where the catch is.

"Well, Mr. J.," I said to the dwarf, "in principle I have no problem doing the job.  There's just a couple of ... let's say minor details to work out.  First: where's the delivery adress?  There's bound to be a response once we leave.  There always is.  So I would like to know where we have to go.  Second, there's seven of us.  Seems like a lot for a simple snatch and grab.  So we might want to discuss the price a little further.  Assuming everybody is in, of course?"

[Chrona]

The helmeted figure just nods, happy to let the others Iron out details.

[Crash_00]

[I might be going crazy here, haven't dealt with hacking a lot in 4E, but don't matrix actions just use Program + Skill with no attribute?

The Redmond/Bellevue Neighborhood Zoo Project is funded by several local charities and groups (Barrens Reconstruction Effort [B.R..E], Humanity Opposed to Political Evasion [H.O.P.E.], and No More Hell [N.M.H.]). There are no corporation ties that you can find, in fact the mission seems to be that the groups can make the world better without corporate help. The zoo is mostly constructed, but is not fully stocked at the moment. Most of the more exotic animals are still in isolation being screened for disease.

Tinks is one of the few White Tigers left in North America. They're was a spread of disease that caused the females to be born infertile and destroyed the species reproduction. There are less than one hundred world wide and only eight females that can currently reproduce. She is meant to be one of the main attractions once the zoo opens next month.


The dwarf stares at the door for a moment as though something caught his eye then shakes it off. He starts off looking at Nowa.
"I don't care what you do with guards as long as it doesn't get back to me. As for the simplicity of the matter, I know there is no magic on the scene yet. I...I worked there up until last week. Magical security doesn't start until next month a week before opening."
He moves his eyes to Pig as he grins,
"Right now most of the security is meant to keep things in rather than things out. I know the guy watching the cams can run a drone, but the only one on scene is loaded up with tranqs and meant to take animals down if they get loose. I can't bribe them, because they'll just turn me in for the reward afterward."
Finally coming to other side of the table, he gives a nod to Doc in response to the stubolt, and addresses Critter.
"I'm hiring the seven of you because our mutual friend Eddy made sure their were enough vehicles and skill between the lot of you to make sure Tinks gets to me without any damage or trace. The pickup point will be further into Redmond, I can't give more than that until the extraction happens because it will be mobile until that point if you understand."
He returns his attention to the room as a whole, before continuing.
"Here's a toss away link you can reach me on. Assuming everyone agrees on the job, what are your issues with the price? I pers...holy shit. Didn't anyone ever tell ya its rude to pop out of the shadows like that."

He seems to have lost his train of though for a moment, startled by the helmeted figures sudden movement.
"I personally found it quite generous."

[Anyone wanting to make attempts at Negotiations feel free to roll, I'll take the highest from the group.]
[ Dwarf Negotiations (4 hits) ]

[benhatt]

(OOC -

[I might be going crazy here, haven't dealt with hacking a lot in 4E, but don't matrix actions just use Program + Skill with no attribute?

You are totally right about that.  Brain fart on my part.  I haven't done a lot of hacking in 4E either. If it's alright by you, I'll just ignore the last two dice on each roll keeping the 6 hits on Tinks and dropping to 8 hits on the Zoo project.)

Boosts eyes  the blue guy up and down, uncomfortable with his talk of killing guards. What did they call him around the place?  Oni?  Maybe she would steer clear of winding up alone with him at any part of the job.  Everyone else seemed ok, even señor misterioso in the corner with the helmet on. Spooky, but ok

"Oh, I'm in," she says when Najateh asks.  Then to the Johnson, "What happens to Tinks tomorrow that this has to be done ASAP?  I can get a box van in less than a minute, but this ain't a lot of planning time. Not complaining, comprende? Just wondering. Curiosity and cat going together is all."

She leans back in her chair, smiling at (what she perceives) is her own cleverness

[Crash_00]

"I have prior engagements elsewhere. The time constraint is on my end, not Tinks'."